Darkness Rising: The Unicorn Hunt
by Three Craaaaaaaazy Aussies
Summary: In Harry’s seventh year, the Unicorn Hunt is to be held at Hogwarts, and the eight great schools of the Western Magisphere are called together to participate. With the darkness rising, nothing will go to plan.
1. Shades of Grey

Summary: This story is based in Harry's seventh year - the Unicorn Hunt, an event held every ten years, is to be hosted at Hogwarts this year, and the eight schools in the Western Magisphere are called together to take part, and as it involves eight different schools, there will obviously be OC's - specifically those from the Australian school Kallaix Academy and the Egyptian school Thundreds. Those will be introduced later in the story. And of course, when the darkness is rising, nothing is going to go completely to plan. First in a trilogy.

Disclaimer: KALLAIX IS OURS!!! Back off! All Hogwarts stuff belongs to JK, but anything you don't recognise (eg, most of the story) is ours.

Chapter One:** _Shades of Grey_**

(September 1st, Britain)

It was night time and raining quite heavily. Harry jogged towards the no-longer-horseless carriages, surrounded by a chattering crowd of students.

He reached up to push already sopping black hair from his eyes, blessing his contact lenses, because if he had still been wearing his glasses, he would not have been able to see through the rain. As he did this, he noticed Draco, jogging beside him, reach up and do the same.

Each saw the other's movement, and grinned simultaneously, then burst into laughter. "Race you to the nearest carriage, Potter!" Draco called over the noise of the crowd.

"You're on!" Harry called back, and the two of them starting running faster, through the reluctantly parting crowd.

Harry remembered a time when he and Draco had been enemies, but that had been a long time ago now – a whole life behind him.

Back in _that_ life everything had been clear to him – the light had shone to show his way, and he had followed Dumbledore's guiding hand with unquestioned loyalty.

Then Sirius had died, and everything had changed. Now he saw everything in shades of grey.

Remus had adopted him the summer after that, while they were grieving together, for the loss of a godfather and a friend.

Remus had known that Sirius, Lily and James had always wanted Harry to have a stable family. Now that the rest of them were gone, he saw it as his duty that he brought that wish to life. The same summer, Lucius Malfoy went crazy in jail, and no one really knew what had happened to him after he had disappeared.

Narcissa Malfoy got a divorce on the basis of abandonment and changed her last name back to Black. She then went on a rampage, selling everything in the house that reminded her of Lucius (which was a lot), save for the actual dark artefacts, which she gave up to the Ministry, who paid her well for her cooperation. This money went into a trust fund for Draco, which he could not access until his seventeenth birthday.

During the process of taking things to the Ministry, she met up with a group of Order of the Phoenix agents, including Albus Dumbledore and Remus Lupin. It didn't take long for her to decide to join the Order, and once she had, she spent a lot of time with Remus, rekindling a love affair from their early Hogwarts years.

With Remus and Narcissa courting, Draco and Harry were thrown together on _far_ more occasions than either of them liked at the time.

Slowly, however, their attitudes had begun to change. They knew that they were god-cousins, and came to accept that they would become stepbrothers in the near future.

From acceptance, friendship bloomed, and the two went from detesting each other, to tolerating each other, to actually looking forward to time spent together.

Harry soon realised how much he enjoyed Draco's company – Draco had never been a supporter of Dumbledore, so Harry could talk freely of his growing mistrust for the Hogwarts Headmaster, his dissatisfaction, and Draco would listen. When Harry had stopped complaining, they would talk, and Draco would mention some good points of Dumbledore's, but also talk of the bad.

When Harry tried to talk to Ron and Hermione about this, they would simply defend Dumbledore, still sure that he was the same good, great person that the rest of the world saw him as. This had formed a rift between Harry and his old friends.

Then school returned for their sixth year, and Draco drifted back to his allies in the Slytherin house and Harry had returned to his old friendship, renewing it.

In that year, Harry had balanced his old life as Gryffindor's little golden boy, and his new life to most people's satisfaction. Hermione soon came to accept, and even like, the new Draco, and had fallen in love with the new Harry, and he loved her back.

Ron, however, did _not_ accept Draco, and Draco would never like Ron. They were civil in Harry's company, because they knew that fighting would only upset the boy who was both of their friends.

DA had continued through that year, with the Slytherins joining it, and though the students might occasionally refer to it as Dumbledore's Army, in Harry's presence it was nothing except Defence Association.

Last summer, between sixth and seventh years, Remus and Narcissa had married, and Harry and Draco had become brothers in law, though they had been in heart and mind for a long time by that stage.

At the end of the holidays, a week before school went back, Draco was sent a letter saying that he had been made Head Boy at Hogwarts. Harry was not jealous, but Draco's first words after reading the letter were, "It should have been you."

Harry had shrugged. "Dumbledore would never make me Head Boy," he replied, "He would think I couldn't cope."

Draco had shaken his head, "_We_ both know that you could have coped easily – look at all that you did last year!"

"Dumbledore will never admit that," Harry replied with acceptance.

"The students will all _think_ of you as Head Boy, we both know that."

"But the teachers will treat _you_ as Head Boy."

"Together we will rule the school!" Both cried simultaneously, green eyes meeting silver, dancing in the light, and smiles touched both lips.

Harry was jolted out of his memories as he saw the first carriage through the rain. He and Draco were perfectly matched for speed. Suddenly a figure stepped away from the carriage – Hermione. "I think I won," she said, smiling wickedly at her boyfriend.

"I think you did too," Harry agreed and gave her a quick kiss.

"Hey! No steamy stuff while I'm watching!" Ron yelled, as he and his girlfriend of a year Padma Patil walked up, arm in arm.

"What about you and Padma?" Draco asked with a raised eyebrow, "Have you ever inflicted your ministrations upon a mirror to see what it looks like?"

Harry had some trouble not laughing. It really was all Seamus' fault that Draco had discovered his own quirky brand of humour, during the swordplay practice at DA. Draco taught the Advanced Class and Leon Necrose, Hufflepuff, taught the Intermediate, as he had spent a year in Japan learning Boshiedo. Seamus had taken to swordplay like a ... like an Irishman to beer, and had quickly joined Draco's class. During one training bout, he realised Draco's apparent lack of humour, and had offered to give the Slytherin after hours lessons. Much to everyone's secret fear, Draco had agreed. They were now faced with results – scary.

Draco continued, "Seeing that once was _far _too much for even me."

Hermione stepped quickly in Ron's path to stop him leaping at Draco, and Harry placed his hand lightly on Draco's shoulder. "I'm not going to attack Ron," Draco said amusedly, "_Some _people have _control._"

Harry nodded, stepping away and looking at the pair. "Can you guys go even twenty four hours without killing one another?"

"Fine," Ron spat, pulling away from Hermione. Everyone was now familiar with the process Harry and Hermione made Draco and Ron go through whenever they fought.

Reluctantly they stepped together and shook hands briefly, "Sorry," They muttered, let go and stepped away. Draco had told Harry that he was willing to stop all this idiocy with Ron, but Ron showed so much animosity towards him that Draco had decided to have as little to do with the other boy as possible.

Harry would have been happy to drop the whole 'forgiving' thing, but Hermione had yet to accept that the two would never be friends.

"Ok, can we go up to the castle now?" Draco asked.

"Let's go, this rain is damn cold." Harry agreed. The five of them clambered into a carriage and it started off towards the castle.

"I'm calling a meeting of the defence council," Harry said as the carriage wound its way upward. The defence council was made up of two representatives from each house who were in seventh year, Harry's year, and was presided over by Draco and Harry, the leaders. This was the governing body of the Defence Association. "Straight after dinner."

"But Harry!" Hermione cried, aghast, "That's when the seventh year prefects and head student meeting is! Dumbledore will kill us! You _are_ a prefect!"

"Hermione, do I _really_ care? That's when the meeting is."

Hermione walked into the Great Hall with Ron, Draco, Padma and Harry, and the group stopped short. There, at the Head Table, was Remus Lupin, who had been there the year before, and was therefore not to be commented on. At the end of the table was Firenze, whom, despite him being a centaur, everyone was familiar with… but who was that red-headed, suspiciously freckled young man next to Firenze …

"CHARLIE!!" Ron bellowed down the Hall, "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?"

"Language, Weasley," Draco drawled.

"I'M TEACHING CARE OF MAGICAL CREATURES! HAGRID'S BEEN MOVED TO SECURITY!" Charlie hollered back.

"HEY CHARLIE! MUM SAID YOU FORGOT YOUR TEDDY BEAR DRAGON! I'VE GOT IT HERE, DO YOU WANT IT NOW?" Ginny thundered from just behind the group.

Draco raised one hand to his ear and scowled at her. "What is it with you Weasleys? Can't you afford owls?"

He was given two dirty looks. Ginny pulled a pink fluffy dragon from behind her back and threw it into the air, Charlie yelled, "NOOOO!!! SMOKEY!!! WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA!!"

Said pink fluffy dragon was levitated to the safety of Charlie's arms, where he hugged it tightly, then, with a carefully blank expression tucked it under the table and whistled, looking as macho as possible.

"Beautiful night tonight," he could be heard commenting to Professor Snape who arched an eyebrow and moved to the _other_ end of the table.

"May I see your dragon?" Hagrid asked, with an eager expression.

"We are _so_ not with them," Harry muttered to Hermione, who nodded, deciding now would be the appropriate time to 'zone out'.

"_Once I told you, once I warned you,_

_and you listened to my song,_

_reuniting the four houses_

_so that we might carry on._

_Two friends they sought to reunite,_

_the houses to be kept._

_Bold Gryffindor he paved the way,_

_Slytherin from shadows crept._

_These two once foes then did unite,_

_and joined us in their way._

_Their mighty crew of students hope,_

_for tomorrow and today…"_

As Hermione listened, almost absentmindedly to the end of the Sorting Hat's song, she suddenly realised what it was talking about, and looked up, meeting Harry's green eyes across the table. He gave her a thumbs up and an adorable grin.

Both turned to look at the Head table, at the centre, Dumbledore looked down at the hat, a slight frown marring his brow as though deep in thought.

Now Hermione was faced with the question of what to do after the feast. Should she go to the seventh year prefect meeting, since she _was_ Head Girl, after all! Or should she go with Harry, the guy she loved, and whom she knew was really right.

When the meal was over, Hermione took a deep breath, preparing to tell Harry that she really had to go to the meeting with Dumbledore, and she would have to take Draco with her, since they were head boy and girl of Hogwarts.

Then Harry flashed her a charming smile, and nodded in the vague direction of the Room of Requirement, arching a questioning eyebrow. Before she knew what she was doing, she was smiling and nodding back, before linking arms with Harry and walking out of the Great Hall, not even hearing Dumbledore call for the seventh year prefects and Head students to attend the meeting in his office in five minutes time.

"I take it you aren't going to the meeting either?" Draco enquired, swinging away from the Slytherin table where Blaise Zabini was collecting his stuff with Malcolm Braddock, the new male Slytherin Prefect, and Daphne, who had taken over from Pansy last year when Pansy had started misusing her privileges.

Padma Patil and Terry Boot of Ravenclaw, as well as Leon Necrose and Hannah Abbot from Hufflepuff joined them. Hermione walked close to Harry as they entered the Room of Requirement. Inside the room was a crackling fire place and a long rectangular table, with four chairs on either side, and one at either end.

The ones on the end were somewhat more ornate than the others – the Room seemed to know exactly what the Council wanted for their meetings. Harry took the chair way from the door, and Draco took the other one, while the others sat, girls on one side, boys on the other, each facing his or her equivalent.

"As Head Boy this year, as well as Second in Command of the Defence Association, I officially call this, the first meeting of the Defence Council this year, to order," Draco stated.

"As the Head of the Defence Association and Council, I officially call this meeting to order," Harry added coolly, and everyone settled into silence, wondering what would be discussed. "Well, the main thing we have to talk about is timing for the DA practice sessions," Harry remarked. "Do the House Quidditch Captains know when they'll be training?"

He looked at Ron, who was the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain, Draco, who was the Slytherin. The Hufflepuff captain Justin Finch-Fletchley, was a member, so he would have to be consulted later, and Ravenclaw's Captain Bradley wasn't a member.

"Well, I hadn't really thought about it too much," Ron said slowly, "But perhaps Friday afternoon for Gryffindor?"

"I was thinking Monday for Slytherin, something really early, and particularly nasty… 6 a.m." Draco put in, shooting a glance at Malcolm who was on the team, and then grinned, "What do you think?"

Malcolm grinned back. "I think the Gryffindors figured you out years ago. You really are evil. Blaise is gonna kick you ass."

"That leaves Thursday for the practical sessions, and I think that we should go back to Sunday evening for the council meetings … are we in agreement?" Harry enquired, looking around the group. "All in favour of Thursday afternoons?"

He raised his own hand, and the rest almost immediately raised theirs. "OK, Hermione Granger, as Recorder for the meetings, would you please enter in the log that all are in agreement on Thursday afternoon?" Draco stated.

"And for the continuation of Council meetings on Sunday afternoons?" Again, there was unanimous agreement, and this was duly entered in the council book.

"OK, that's the important things out of the road," Harry said. "Now we have to discuss the rest of what's going on at Hogwarts this year and anything that will affect DA should really be discussed."

Draco looked around the meeting. It was good to be back at Hogwarts, and back with the Defence Council. This was where he belonged. Just a pity about Ron Weasley …

Ron started saying something and Draco tuned out, focusing instead on his latest memories of home … so much had changed, now memories were happy rather than painful. His mother was happy now, baking in the kitchen, having yelled conversations with Remus across the dining room, Harry and himself laughing at Remus's jokes, rolling their eyes at sappy love comments at that kind of decibel.

Harry and Draco sneaking into the kitchen behind her back and trying to steal her muffins – of which Harry was _overly_ partial, and Draco had never really tried before, since Lucius didn't let her cook. They often ran into Remus doing exactly the same thing. Damn those muffins were good!

He wrote a mental note to himself, he would have to send an owl to Narcissa and ask for muffins … unless Harry had already done that.

"Draco? Draco? Hello Draco!" Draco's head snapped up, and he met Harry's laughing green eyes at the other end of the table.

"Muffins," Draco said.

"I already asked Narcissa to send some, there's a packet in each of our trunks and more coming at breakfast tomorrow," Harry assured him. "But that wasn't what I was talking about."

"Who gave you permission to talk about anything but muffins?"

"Have you talked to Seamus recently?" Leon enquired, arching an eyebrow while everyone else giggled.

"Yes, saw him at dinner … lovely chap, used to think he was gay," Draco replied.

"Exciting as your meeting with and prior impressions of Seamus might be, let's get back on topic," Harry said. "Going back to my original question: while you and Hermione have told me about the United Youth Conference, aka the Unicorn Hunt, no one else here knows. I assume that was what Dumbledore wanted to talk to us about at the meeting that he was supposed to be holding now."

"Oh, you want me to tell them?" Draco asked.

"Finally, we have a breakthrough."

"Fine," Draco muttered. "The United Youth Conference is held every ten years as a way for the eight largest schools in the Western Magisphere to get together and compete at popular sports and crap on about so called 'important' issues in teenage society … they haven't yet brought up dragon racing at school … idiots. Because Hogwarts won last time, this time we get the esteemed 'privilege' of hosting the damn thing."

"I think I've heard something about that, …" Ron muttered.

"Well duh, your teddy-bear owning older brother _was_ in his seventh year at the time it was last time. He was Quidditch captain at the time, he won us the Quidditch and that won us the damn cup, so it's all _his_ damn fault that we have to organise it this year."

"Oh," Ron said.

"Talking about your older brother, he is _soo_ cute," Daphne said dreamily. "And did you see him with that toy dragon? Oh my god!"

"You're not only talking to a guy, but about my older brother – it's not a nice picture," Ron said, "Besides, he's too old for you."

Hermione scowled at him, "Ron, will you _quit_ your over protectiveness? It's so frustrating! Ginny really liked being with Dean and then you _blew it_!" she snarled at him. "Now you're trying to organise your brother's love life – he's what, ten years your senior?"

"Yeah," Ron said nervously.

"So stop it! I _dare_ you, Ron Weasley, every time Ginny looks like she's going to get with someone, or have an argument with someone during the Hunt, _walk away_."

"I can do that," Ron said. "Dare accepted."

Hermione sat back with a satisfied look on her face. "OK, so while the Hunt is going on, we've got all year nearly to plan this, but we should start now, we need to have some students who will go around and make sure no fights break out between the schools," she continued.

"I think that should consist mainly of the DC," Harry said, "But with other members from fifth and six year ready to be called."

"That's a good idea," Draco agreed, "We can't have too many of the younger students running around trying to break up fights. Leave it to the seventh years whenever possible."

"Are there going to be _that_ many fights? The competitors are pretty much all in seventh year – I'm sure they are more mature than that," Malcolm Braddock remarked with a yawn.

"Look at what happened before Slytherin-Gryffindor Quidditch matches," Hermione pointed out in grim amusement, "I seem to remember plenty of seventh year students being involved in those, as well as anyone else who took offence at members of the other house."

"They're right," Terry Boot agreed. "I saw what some of you guys did to each other, and a lot of it was pretty low – sorry, but it was. I don't think I'd be all that good at breaking up fights though."

A slim, tall and studious young man with glasses, Terry Boot was quite obviously _not_ suited to breaking up fights. There was a round of nods over the table. "We should change those coins that Hermione made in fifth year so that they can be used to alert all the members of the DC when a fight breaks out," Harry suggested. The need for the coins had disappeared with Umbridge, but they were still a good idea.

"That sounds good," Ron agreed.

"Hermione, can you make them again? And modify them to fulfil their new purpose?" Harry asked.

"Of course," Hermione replied. "I'll get onto that tonight. Terry, maybe you could give me a hand?"

"Sure. I'd like to be of more help to the DC," Terry agreed. "I'm sure I'd be able to do this."

"It's quite easy," Hermione assured him. "Meet me in the library tomorrow after classes."

Suddenly the door flew open and everyone turned around as none other than Albus Dumbledore strode into the room, looking happy to have found them. "So here you are!" he said, eyes twinkling madly. Behind him was Ernie McMillan, looking somewhat apologetic. He mouthed to Harry, _I didn't tell him_.

"Yes, here we are," Draco agreed calmly, not in the least bit apologetic as he met the ancient blue eyes. "Oh, sorry, we were supposed to be at _your_ meeting, weren't we?"

Draco was tempted to laugh. Though Dumbledore was trying to hide it, Draco could see the disappointment in the Headmasters eyes. "Yes, you were," he said softly.

"I was _just_ about to suggest that we organise the United Youth Conference this year. As the Defence Council responsible for the safety of the school, I believe it would be in our best interest if you leave it to us," Harry put in coolly, ignoring Dumbledore's almost-hidden disappointment just as Draco had.

"Well …"

"It makes sense," Hermione put in. "Draco and I are the Head students and we fully support the idea, don't we Draco?"

Draco nodded quickly.

"I suppose so then," Dumbledore murmured. "I hope that you will come to me should you ever require assistance."

"Count on it," Hermione assured him, glaring a silent warning at Harry, who looked about to protest.

Harry nodded, obviously unwilling. "Should we need any help in organising any aspect of the Unicorn Hunt, we will request your aid," he said. "But we have other matters to discuss tonight, including organising this years lessons with DA – Draco, Leon, you will continue with your sword fighting lessons, I hope?"

Dumbledore left quietly, wishing that he could once more gain Harry's trust, and hold it as he once had. He had tried to regain the young hero's support by giving DA as much power as it liked within the school, but this had done nothing to lessen Harry's animosity, merely providing the boy with the opportunity to go head-to-head with him more often. Tonight was the worst of Harry's attempts to rebel against Dumbledore.

* * *

Well, that's the end of the first chapter. Please review and let us know what you think ... the next chapter should be posted soon ... don't worry, the chapters will get longer as time goes on ... MUCH longer ... 


	2. Beginnings

Chapter Two: **_Beginnings_**

(1st February, Australia)

Justine Snape yawned languidly and wondered why the hell she was up before the sun. Then the memories came flooding back and she remembered that today was the first day of school and Kris would be here in half an hour to take her to her 6 o'clock flight to Brisbane. Five o'clock in the morning was not a natural hour. She slipped from her bed and left her room to grab some munchies.

Her mother kind of stumbled into the dining room just as Justine was finishing her pop-tarts. Even as docile as she was, Julia was stunning; she was in fact the Anchorwoman for the five o'clock News on the AMN network. The Australian Magic Network was a unique hidden magic channel that could only be access on an Austar box by way of a wand.

"Morning Mummy!" Justine smiled, "You get rid of me today."

"And not a day too soon." Julia laughed, "You're ruining my social life, but seriously, get your butt into gear - Kris will be here in 20 minutes and I've got to get to the studio. The bastards paged me."

Justine dashed upstairs and changed into the clothes she had chosen for school. It wasn't really appropriate to wear robes in public places. A black sleeveless turtleneck sweater and a short black pleated skirt later she was standing in front of her vanity messing with her makeup. She had long darkest brown hair and emerald green eyes framed by long curling lashes.

She just had to pack her personal stuff, her pocket book, journal, wallet, head girl badge and mobile phone were easy to grab and throw in the bag, but she had to run down the hall and borrow her mothers shrink'em case to make her broom, wand and beaters club look no bigger then pretty pencils.

She was in the process of throwing shoes into the draw on the bottom of the trunk when the phone rang. It was Aunt Gweneviere, checking to make sure that Julia had gotten her ready. It was a running joke that Julia and her big brother Daniel were hopeless at packing. In fact Tegan, Justine's cousin, was falling apart as she spoke.

"Yeah I'm fine, Mum left post-its all over the house to remind herself to pack things. For awhile there I thought she had painted the fridge yellow. I'll hand you over. But take malicious glee in reminding Tegan she has to be ready in 15 minutes."

Justine heard her Aunty Gwen call that piece of information to Tegan. This was followed by a screech then accompanied by some loud cursing. Justine giggled and handed the phone to her now dressed mother.

With five minutes left Justine was properly packed. Her whole life was in her Kallaix Academy trunk. She walked over and open her jewellery box, putting on the silver heart locket that Gwen and Daniel had given her last Christmas. Inside there was 2 wizard photos the first was of a man with dark brown hair and flashing green eyes. He smiled up at her and winked. This was her father, he had died just before she was born.

The second was of a man with shoulder length black hair and longish features. In this photo he was looking uncharacteristically proud and happy but her memories were of a harder man, one who rarely had time for most people and those very people thought him evil. He called her his light, what kept him on the right side. Severus Snape, her father's brother. The two men with the most impact on her life.

She sighed.

Picking out of the draw next to her bed a wooden box in which she kept her jewellery in while she was at school, she began to pack her favorite things. First was the engagement ring that her father had given her mother a pretty square cut emerald surrounded by diamonds. Then a thin gold chain with a gold medallion that read "Kris's Gal" on one side and "Mark's Gal" on the other. Lastly, out of the big things was her grandmother's diamond set followed by a whole tangle of fake and glittery pretty things.

She picked down to the bottom of her jewellery box when her hand encountered something velvety and warm. Justine frowned and dug out the green vevet bag with silver tassles. Recognition hit her with such force that she gasped and dropped the bag before she could stop herself.

A diamond cuff bracelet. An inch wide band of glittering white perfection. The small clasp holding it into circular glory the starting point of a small silver chain ending in a heart shaped black opal. Holding the opal up to the sun, Justine would see the play of colours in its depths. She knew it so well she didn't even have to take it out of the bag to know every detail.

"Justine, hon, Kris is here", her mother called up the stairs followed immediately by Kris's familiar, "Hope you're not decent" as he entered her room. She went over and gave Kris a hug; he was one of her oldest friends. Kris was powerfully built, with brown hair and blue eyes. She couldn't remember a time when Kris and herself weren't close. She had grown up with Kristopher Crompton. Kris's mother had been her mothers best friend when they were at school. Kris's father was the Australian Minister of Magic - Gregory Crompton and Kris was expected to follow his father into the Ministry. But they forgot one thing. Kris didn't ever follow. He was a leader.

"So, from your incredibly smug expression, I'm geussing your Head Boy."

Kris grinned and pulled his badge from a pocket.

"Dad was excited, mum cried. Truly embarassing"

Kris shook his head, grinning.

"Our mothers had frappochinos the other day. Congratulations Head Girl."

Justine giggled and flashed her best smile

"Seeing as how you're here, you can take my trunk downstairs." Justine said as she pulled her shoes on.

Kris looked her up and down. Justine could tell what his mind was doing.

"Before you even start, stop. Get my trunk downstairs boy."

"Yes ma'am, anything you say."

"Oh bite me."

"Gladly."

Justine turned onn him with a raised eyebrow.

"Fine", he said with mock grumpiness, "I'll just do as I'm told. I'm so unappreciated."

He levitated her trunk and as he passed Justine kissed him on the cheek.

"That's better.", he grinned exuberantly, "see you downstairs."

Justine turned to stuff her jewellery box for school into her small carry on bag with her school robes she was going to change into en-route. Then, as she zipped the bag and picked up her handbag, did she spot the green bag still lying on the floor.

She put her carry on over one shoulder and was just about to walk away when impulse directed her to pick it up and slip it into the zip compartment inside her handbag.

* * *

Kris's black Jeep had been a birthday present from his parents when he'd arrived home last year. It was muggle equipped with CD, aircon and a monster speaker system. But it also had a small-space-o-gram, allowing them to easily slip through traffic and a light-changer, for pesky red lights. Today, because the sun was shining and the weather was warm, they sped along the Sydney freeway's with the top down.

When they pulled up in front of Tegan Hall's house, just on the outskirts of the CBD, Justine was sort of glad. To put it frankly Kris was an exuberant driver, and the music didn't help calm him.

Tegan's mother answered the phone the same time as she answered the door.

Gweneviere Hall possessed a natural grace that gave her the ability to keep cool in the direst situations. She was obviously expecting Kris and Justine because she just kept chatting heading into the lounge waving them upstairs.

Up in Tegans room, which was affectionately dubbed the 'chemical lab', they found it in a mess. Not your ordinary "Tegan's bedroom mess", but another sort altogether. Justine was given the distinct impression that Tegan had been testing nuclear weapons in her room. Tegan's clothes were all spread completely over the bed, her books strewn into the bottom of her open trunk, her shoes were all mismatched and her smalls were…well surprise, surprise, at least they were in a neat pile on the end of her bed.

Tegan was in her small en suite pulling on her jacket when Justine found her after leaping over the many piles of crap all of which Tegan said were in their proper places. She was wearing long, black, fitted dress pants with silver pinstripes and a black top. Tegan packed in her own haphazard way, which generally meant tossing things from one end of the room to the other hoping they landed in the vacinity of the trunk, meaning nothing fitted and everything spewed out of the top.

Right when Tegan seemed that she was going to completely lose the plot, screaming "You stupid, evil, butthead of a trunk. You were sent from the depths of Hell to torment me!!!!!!" Gwen walked into the room and affectionately patted her daughter on the head. She pointed her wand and repacked the trunk neatly in a matter of seconds.

"Thanks." Tegan mumbled.

Gwen kissed her daughter on the head and seemed to glide into the bathroom to pack the forgotten toiletries. Meanwhile Tegan, Kris and Justine trooped downstairs to where Tegan's dad, Daniel Hall, was sitting eating his breakfast. When the trio entered the room Tegan ran over to take a seat next to her dad, wrapping herself around his arm while Kris stole a piece of toast.

"Are you off already?" he asked the group.

Kris and Justine moved off to let Tegan say goodbye to her dad.

Daniel Hall was tall with soft brown eyes and a twinkling smile which he had passed onto his children. Justine walked over to where 20 year old Mark, Tegan's older brother was watching AMN. Even as dishevelled as he looked at twenty to six in the morning he had wanted to get up to say goodbye to his sister.

"Hey what's on?" Justine asked as she sat on the couch next to him. He looked up at her and smiled.

"Your mum in an hour." the cousins grinned at one another, knowing how much Julia cursed being the anchorwoman of the 6:30 Sunrise News. But she wouldn't hear a word against it.

Mark was, for lack of a better word the newest teenage heart-throb. Since graduating from Kallaix, Mark had made a string of successful teenage movies under the psudonym of Mark Grey, in an effort to keep his family anonymous. Tegan was often heard commenting how annoying it was to have chicks hate you because you got to go to the movies with your brother.

"So back to Kallaix?" Mark questioned, "And Head Girl to boot. I wish I was in 7th year again."

"I don't", said Gwen as glided into the room, "You were a moody 17 year old."

"And your still the favorite child" Tegan grumbled mutinously, "and you still get a bigger bedroom."

"Your brother gets a bigger room because his doesn't look like a pigsty." Gwen retorted.

"But it's an _ordered _pigsty." Tegan protested.

Everyone joined in the laughing which was finally broken by Kris's, "We've got to go pick up Ally in two minutes, COME ON PEOPLE, let's get moving!" as he levitated Tegan's trunk and headed towards the car. Tegan gave her father a big hug and wished him a good day at work. Daniel was the head of The Ministrys of Magic Department for Preservation and Concealment of Magical Creatures. This meant he spent most of his time working towards perserving the secret of the Australian Dragon Reservations, of which most of Australia was.

In fact, Kallaix Academy was possibly the most secure place in the world for this very reason. Not only did it have all sorts of magical wards, but it was protected by four guardian dragons, each one the symbolic emblem for one of the four houses, Wentworth, Steelwell, Petersen and McEwan. Not every school had four full size Dragons protecting the students.

After many hugs all around, they were racing down the freeway squeezing through traffic heading into the city. Only a few minutes later, which scared the girls, they pulled up in front of a huge house in an upscale area of town and buzzed for the wrought iron gate to open. Alyson Deveréaux stood on her front porch wearing a white suit tapping her foot pointedly.

"You're late." she said bluntly as they pulled up.

"It's cool; we've got a whole ten minutes to get to the airport." Kris said as he levitated her trunk to the boot, helped her into the back and took off screaming.

* * *

(_Meanwhile, back at Hogwarts)_

Ron stormed out of the Great Hall in disgust. It seemed that even dinner was no longer a safe haven from Malfoy. Up until now the Slytherin boy had eaten at the Slytherin table, and Harry had eaten with Ron and Hermione and his friends in Gryffindor, as was proper. And then tonight Harry went and invited Malfoy to eat with them at the Gryffindor table. Ron had stormed off the moment this invitation had been offered, since he was sure that Malfoy would accept, and he didn't want to get pulled into spending an entire dinner trying to be civil for Harry's sake.

Ron didn't understand, why was Harry saw blind? How could he think that Malfoy had just suddenly turned over a new leaf and was now 'the good guy of the year'? How had Harry managed to forget everything that Malfoy had done to them throughout the years that they had been at Hogwarts? Particularly fifth year, when he had made their lives living hell?

He knew it was no use talking to Hermione, she would only respond with, "Harry thinks that Draco has changed … maybe he has. I think we should give him the benefit of the doubt," or some bullshit like that. Her being with Harry had made her impossible to talk to in situations like this one.

Rounding a corner, teeth grinding in anger, Ron walked straight into Seamus and they both fell over.

"Whoa, watch where your going Weasley, although that was a fantastic impression of Snape!" Seamus answered easily as he righted himself, grinning at his dorm mate.

Ron half smiled in return, then the scowl returned, "Wanna come down to the kitchens with me? There's no way I'm going back to the Hall to eat tonight."

Seamus looked a little shocked, but grinned and nodded, gesturing for Ron to lead the way. "So, uh, wanna talk about it Ron?" he asked tentatively.

"It's that stupid Malfoy again," Ron said moodily. "Meals were some of the few times that Hermione and me had Harry to ourselves, when it could just be us, the way it always used to be. Now Harry's inviting 'Draco' over to eat with us! I mean, can't Harry see that he's going to get stabbed in the back?"

Seamus, from slightly behind Ronald shook his head. Ron had flatly refused to accept the changes going on in Hogwarts. Personally, Seamus had spent a little time hanging out with Malfoy, in sword play for the DC and they had hung out at Hogsmede telling each other jokes one day, and as far as Seamus could tell, Malfoy was just a guy with a wicked sharp sense of humour and a aversion to people who he deemed as stupid or annoying. Ron unfortunately fell in this category.

Ron continued ranting, oblivious to his companion's thoughts on the matter, "These days it's always 'Draco would you like to sit with us in Potions class' or, 'Draco do you want to come and fly with me?' or, 'I'm sorry, Draco and I are going to work on our homework in the library, but you're welcome to come along as well.' What happened to us? We're supposed to be his best friends! Yet he's always got other things to do, it's always Draco first and then an invitation to us an after thought!"

Seamus decided to take the easy way and asked, "Ron, have you considered that maybe now they're brothers they might have just found they like each others company?"

"Brothers," Ron spat, "They're brothers in name only! They hated each other! They can't have just put all of that behind them and moved on. Malfoy certainly wouldn't have – he holds grudges. This is just some elaborate plan to gain Harry's trust and then utterly betray him. I know it is, Malfoy wouldn't have made friends with Harry for anything else. I try to be civil, because I know it hurts Harry when Malfoy starts an argument, but there's only so much I can put up with! I've tried talking to Harry _and_ Hermione. Harry just looks at me sadly and changes the subject, and Hermione tells me that I'm not looking deep enough, and that Malfoy might have really changed!"

Seamus was trying very hard to contain his thoughts. He figured that Ron was going to face every one of his arguments irrationally so he tried a different track. "Maybe the whole brother scene is as new to Malfoy as it is to Harry, I mean, he never really had family as close as he has now, and it might be a case of 'you've found a good thing hold onto it'."

"Yeah right. As if Malfoy cares about things like families," Ron snorted derisively. "Trust me – he's only doing this because the Dark Lord put him put him up to it."

Seamus flinched, a muscle in his jaw working hard. "Weasley, your making some really nasty accusations there."

Ron shrugged moodily. "I just don't like it!" he burst out. "Why can't Harry see what's right in front of his face?"

A cool voice came from behind them, "Maybe you are just too blind to see it Weasley, but I have changed. And you may rest assured, Harry is in no danger of betrayal from me," Ron spun around to see Draco standing behind him, a harsh look in his silver eyes. "Or maybe you are just jealous. It was suit you, I think, to be jealous whenever something good happens to your friends. You're just to immature to realise that Harry needs every good thing in his life he can get right now. I've made an effort to be nice to you, but it's getting more difficult with each passing day to be forced into the company of juveniles like yourself. If you had bothered to remain for but a few moments, rather than storming off in a childish display of temper, you would have realised that I did not accept the invitation, because while Harry is my brother, there are still those in Slytherin who are my friends. Harry and I have come to an agreement, like the maturing adults that _we_ are, that mealtimes are to be reserved for our housemates. We are both well aware that our relationship is … shall we say, not well received by various members of both our houses, and to attempt to dilute that hostility, came to our decision.

Seamus just gave Ron a meaningful look and walked away, hoping that by walking away, he would demonstrate the maturity that Ron seemed to be incapable of displaying. He wasn't at all interested in being brought into Ron's war against Draco. As far as he was concerned, if Draco had convinced Harry that he had changed, that was good enough. Besides, Draco _had_ been being nice to the Gryffindors, and had, after no small amount of effort on Seamus's part, developed something of a sense of humour.

Ron glanced between Draco and the retreating Seamus, then hurried off down a corridor, leaving Draco to watch him with an expression similar to that which he might wear when he was looking at something slimy and disgusting, like a slug. Then Draco turned and walked back to the Great Hall to sit with the Slytherins and wish, not for the first time, that Remus really had been his father and he'd never heard the name of Lucius Malfoy – if it wasn't for his father, he wouldn't have to deal with any of this crap that some of the Gryffindors, Weasley in particular, were giving him. Why couldn't he just be accepted?

* * *

Sydney airport was busy as usual, no matter that it was 6 am. Nevertheless, most people noticed the young man seated in the café. He was the sort of guy most young women would die for and most men would automatically want for a friend.

He was tall and lean with muscular arms and chest defined under his charcoal grey dress shirt. His steel grey eyes were accentuated by his shirt, and his blond hair hang in bangs around his eyes and brushed his collar. People jokingly told him he looked like Trunks from Dragonball Z.

Alexander Kidson. Ax to all of his friends, Alex to those with a death wish. He was sipping on a latte, thinking that hour was ungodly. He grinned as he looked down at the black bag at his side. It contained a set of school clothes and other things he referred to as junk. One such non essential item was the mobile he had gotten for Christmas that was altered to work on magic levels. It had been a present from his best friends.

Speak of the devil, they had just arrived. Among them the only 3 chicks that he had never been able to control. First in was Alyson, his cute little blonde. Most people thought they were a couple but she was more like his twin sister. Medium height with fantastic silver eyes. She was the softer sweeter aspect of the group, but a hell-raiser when she wanted to be. Spotting him she flashed a huge smile and waved.

Tegan Hall, the rebellious teen personified. She was witty and clever and well known for her natural ability with animals. Her shoulder length hair couldn't really be defined as one colour. She called it brindle, he called it tortoiseshell. She had soft brown eyes, but Ax would never fall for it because he knew she was not as innocent as she looked.

His best friend Kris. Natural born redneck. Probally the most popular guy at school because everyone loved him. His hair was spiked into crazy little peaks and his little boy expression alone spoke volumes. He was in one of _those_ moods, meaning that Ax was in for a long flight.

Then came the one girl he could truly call his equal. Justine Snape's flashing green eyes and smiling mouth gave her the most disarming qualities. She was smart, loyal and incredibly mischievous. She had the annoying quality to make you do just what she wanted without you even realising it. Ax constantly had to remind himself to never ever upset Justine, she had a vindictive bitchy streak and was as stubborn as a mule.

They came and joined him at his table.

"You'r late." He stated bluntly.

"I know the feeling" Alyson responded

"Well Tegan took hours as usual, and Kris had to wait for the ministry guy to pick up his precious Jeep." Justine put in as she settled herself on Axs lap. Justine noticed that the red head at the table next to her was giving her and Ax envious looks. This was no new thing to Justine. Ax was, to put it frankly, the biggest playboy at Kallaix. In other ways he was her male equivalent loving mischief and possessing a vindictive temper.

Only seconds later their flight was called and they headed for the tarmac. Outside they were met by the other prefects who were going on the small plane to Brisbane. They were all 6th or 7th year students being marked off a list by Saul Thorpe-Townsend, McEwan prefect and all round joker. He strolled over with a bright smile lit up by the newly rising sun and said, "Well don't you guys look all business like. Sad to say these holidays went way too long, I miss school."

Justine laughed as Tegan gave a small shudder and responded, "That's not natural, not natural at all."

The two hour flight to Brisbane was taken by chatting, card games and a rauctious game of Monopoly.

At ten to eight when the plane touched down in Brisbane the group split up, but most of them were going to end up in the same place anyway, The Golden Plaza. It was a huge wizarding shopping centre right in the middle of Brisbane, hidden so that muggles could never find it.

The five made their way to a taxi that went into the city just up from the Suncorp building where they entered a small coffee shop on the edge of the park. The layout meant that they were able to swerve around the back of the shop to were another room was hidden. The security man checked them out then, an after an exubarent chat with Kris whom he recognised, he let them into the Mall.

The massive atrium with open centre showed all five floors with their white marble floors and gold trim. Bright displays and flashy lights lit up the shops all the way down to the bottom floor which was the food court and Gringotts Bank. They stood at the top most rail looking down at the busy shopping world. They all headed to a quick trip to Gringotts Wizard Bank to get money from their accounts and exchange muggle money.

Gringotts was set in the right hand corner of the ground floor. Being a smaller version of British Gringotts, with not so many vaults, nor the gothic style. Rather it was incredibly Victorian with walnut panelled walls and burgundy velvet drapes. The front desk of the bank was heavy mahogany with golden fixtures.

Behind the desk hung a massive painting of a country landscape by moonlight, with plently of blacks and greens. Goblins ran up and down serving customers. Justine needed to use the Floo transaction system to get money from her London vault so she joined that line.

Alyson and Kris shared a cart down to the vaults, and Tegan and Ax were going to join the exchange line later.

Justine was addressed by a Goblin wearing a green uniform.

"Ma'am may I help you?"

Justine flashed her best smile.

"My name is Justine Snape. I wish to make a withdrawal from my London Vault."

"Yes ma'am, I'll need your vault number, key and signature here."

He indicated a line on a golden parchment on the podium in the room Justine had just been shown into. She recited her vault number and gave over her vault key. Next she picked up the feather quill and signed her name in the middle of a creamy parchment. The burgundy ink began to glow an intense light and Justine had to turn her head from the sheer intensity.

When she was able to look again her own feminine handwriting had rearranged to read 'Justine Snape, Vault 396, London'.

Justine looked questioningly at the goblin who stared blankly back and said, "Security check.". He then gestured to the blank black wall.

"Your London vault will arrive in a moment. I will leave you in privacy to conduct your buisness."

He walked to the wall, inserted Justine's key, turned it, then walked back, returning her key to her and left.

Suddenly the back door of the bank seemed to erupt with silver white flames. Justine threw up one arm to sheild her eyes ranting under h breath, "This is why I don't bloody touch my London account".

When the flame retreated to the very edges of the walls she was able to walk over to see her vault on the other side. Piles of inherited gold sat in front of Justine. She piled gold coins into a bag. This money had been left to her by her dad, Calis Snape, when he died. Calis had, along with his brother Severus, inherited the family gold. And her fathers half was now hers. She was heiress with estate and everything, although she had never seen them.

When her mother was 8 months pregnant with her, he had died. Justine really didn't know what had happened, it hurt her mother to speak about it. She finished collecting her coins all the while thinking about her father…..

* * *

For the second time that day he sat waiting for the rest of the group to hurry up.

"What's taking so long?" he muttered to himself.

Ax stood up and stretched out his back. Tegan was off changing his money, they did a deal: she did this for him and he would buy her the pair of shoes she had fallen in love with on the second floor.

Ax had never known his perents they had died shortly after he had born. He had instead been raised by his previously confirmed bachelor Uncle, Darcy at his home in Cork, Ireland. Darcy hadn't been prepared to have a kid, but Ax would always be greatful to Darcy for the way he had stubbornly refused to give his nephew up. Sure he wasn't the best parent, teaching Ax unconciously to be a womaniser and playboy but he had been there when nobody else was. Darcy was also proud when Ax was offered a position at Kallaix Acedemy, little did he know he had Severus Snape to thank that for.

He just had to say one thing, he would never voluntarily spend two weeks of his holidays at Saul's house ever again. Although Alyson's mansion would be the cushy deal, Justine's apartment had been fun, and for the first time, when he was living with Tegan, he felt like he had a mother. Even as he charmed himself into her life, he didn't realise that she had so firmly charmed herself into his heart. He had a thing for Gwen. She made him cupcakes.

Ax had started his schooling at Hogwarts, and could still remember the first day of fourth year when the exchange students had arrived from Australia and France. Alyson Deveréaux (who had come from Beauxbatons), Tegan Hall, Adam Blake, and the lady herself, Justine Snape from Oz. She was his first non-controllable female which annoyed him to high hell. She had taught him to respect so the blow was lessened when Alyson and Tegan didn't conform either. Alyson was more like his twin sister and Tegan had a healthy lust for mischief. He would do anything to protect his girls, anything to keep them from being hurt. Damn, he had done it before and would do it again in a heartbeat.

Ax opened his eyes and waited for them to accustom themselves to the darkness inside the Fifth year Griffindor boys dorms. A storm raged outside, typical weather for late November as his first four years at Hogwarts had taught him. His senses told him that it wasn't Neville's snoring that had woken him up as usual, and Harry, Dean, Ron and Seamus were sleeping too. There was definitely human voices and they weren't happy.

_As he walked down the hall he began to distinguish the words._

"_I swear I didn't do that, you have to believe me! I wouldn't do that to you, I love you."_

"_You filthy lying bitch. You say love me? Did you laugh in secret at me? Every time you said you loved me, did you close your eyes and picture his face?. You whore."_

"_Oh God! Don't tell me you believe this, do you have any proof or are you just getting off on all this pain? Is this why you followed me back here?"_

_Slap Ax rounded the corner he saw, from the railing above the pair, as the girl fell backwards landing on the stone floor. She tried to sit up but failed. As she rubbed the back of her head, her sobs intensified and her hand came away covered in blood._

_As she looked back up at the boy Ax got a profile look at her, it was Justine. That bastard was manhandling Justine. Without thinking Ax pivoted over the railing, dropping down and landing between the pair. Within a millisecond his sword had slid out and was now being held at the boy's throat. One of the perks of being a sword mage: you got a big swishy sword. _

"_Touch her again you bastard and I swear I will kill you."_

"_Fuck off Kidson, you don't understand!"_

_With a quick movement Ax left a line of blood along the boys jaw line, not deep enough for any real damage, but enough for healthy flow and the boy immediately back off swearing profusely, mainly directed at Justine. The boys faced each other, steel grey facing silver._

"_That wasn't very nice, now are you gonna get the hell out of our common room or am I gonna have to get the rest of the house? They all have a nice healthy hatred of you."_

_The other boy shot a glare at both of them before turning and walking out._

_A week later Severus Snape had arranged for scholarships for all of the Australians to go back to Australia to re-attend the prestigious Kalliax Acedemy, along with Ax. Severus had pulled him aside and said to him in a voice that Ax had never heard before,it was full of anguish. "She's hurting, Ax, I should never have brought her here. Take care of her. Protect her. Promise me she'll be safe."_

And he did.

For this school year Darcy had sent him his money in the muggle form, as he was backpacking somewhere in the depths of the Amazon, the very reason Ax had not been able to go home for the holidays. The money had been rectangular and made from paper. Highly amusing to him as a purely wizarding kid. Tegan and him had spent 15 minutes stupidly laughing and making jokes such as, "Oh no, my wallet's wet! My money is dissolving, it's melting, meeeeelting."

Tegan got back from the exchange desk while he was grinning at the memory.

"Dear god, what could make you grin like that? Could it be a girl? Oooh you like her."

"Considering I was thinking about you, you should be worried."

Tegan gasped in mocked shock and said, "You were having indecent thoughts about moi?"

Ax flashed his best grin and parried, "No, you would just like to think I was." Ax and Tegan grinned at each other and were joined by Alyson and Kris, freshly back from the vaults.

"Let's go amigos." Kris called.

"Nah, now you have to sit down and wait. Justine isn't out yet."

Kris rolled his eyes and said, "Trust Princess Justine to take forever, I have beauticians to see, hairdressers to talk to, I have to pick up my prom dress and just look at my manicure!!!" Kris was screeching at the top of his lungs, "Some people just don't appreciate true beauty."

Justine, Ax noticed, had witnessed the entire scene from the other side of the room,and was now laughing so hard that she was doubled over and leaning on the doorframe. Kris took this as a cue to jump up and grab her, swinging her out of the bank.

Tegan leaned over and whispered to Alyson and Ax, "We are so not with them."

"No, of course not, they're complete strangers." Ax responded.

Tegan shook her head."Never seen them before in my life."

"Of course not."

Alyson suddenly stood and laughed "We have to hurry or we're gonna lose them."

Tegan shook her head. She was used to this, her friends were bloody idiots, but funny nonetheless, idiots.

It was half past eight and for the next twenty minutes the group wandered around buying all the books and equipment they would need for their seventh year of school. They picked up their potion gear just before heading the the foodcourt for brunch. It was the rendezvous point, so to speak.

The team had arranged to meet with the other prefects, who just happened to also be their school friends.

They entered around ten to nine, and immediately spotted the group. Two tables had been dragged together and 5 people were crowded around chatting and laughing loudly. First was Tanya Bussa, the pretty red haired Petersen prefect. Justine could swear she had done something different with her hair. She was laughing insanely at something Adam Blake had just said. Adam, who was the resident quidditch fanatic, was known for his crazy, impulsive streak, (Which was reflected in his blonde tipped spiky hair). Next to Adam, Saul looked like he was about to pass out from laughing. Making Adam just grin harder.

Jacque Quaine and Jeffery Campbell were nearby, and judging from the piles of chinese food in front of them, they had split a banquet. They were happily chatting between mouthfuls. The two were the school sweethearts, as well as the Steelwell prefects.

Justine watched as Ax went over to join the laughing group and Kris and Tegan migrated to the food. Adam dragged Alyson into his lap and blew raspberries on to her shoulders, Alyson squeaked loudly and tried to struggle away, which caused giggling all over again. Justine moved her chair to be between Saul and Jacque.

"How was your holiday?" Justine asked the whole group unitedly. People started to tell the stories of their summer holidays. When it got around to Alyson and Jeffery they both stood grinning. Alyson began with, "I received a letter from school, telling me I was this year's Wentworth prefect. This, of course, can mean only one thing."

People all started to smile suspiciously at Justine, whom had been the prefect for the previous two years.

"But the proverbial plot thickens when we add in the fact that I am to take young Kristopher's place as the Steelwell prefect," Jeffery, ever the tease, paused before adding, "So show us the frigging badges already."

Justine and Kris dug out the small, shiny golden badges they had received, and it was hugs and congratulations all round.

Tegan laughed, "And if Kris didn't think he was the best already, now he's got the stupid badge to prove it."

"Well he is in Steelwell after all." Jacque added just before Adam passed Alyson to Ax and stood up to say.

"I've got more good news. I've got the final list for who's on the school Quidditch team," then added as an after thought, "Oh yeah and I'm the Wentworth quiddich captain."

Eveeryone gasped. "Why did they send the lists to you and not the rest of the house Quidditch captains?" Saul asked voicing the question that most were thinking. Adam went decidedly red.

Ax's voice broke through the ensuing silence, "Because he is obviously the school Quidditch captain."

At Adam's nod of consent there were screams of laughter and congratulations. The school headmistress, Jean Wadsworth had held school team auditions and the players for the interhouse teams were usually chosen on this day too. Tons of people had tried out for various positions, and it was all coming down to crunch time.

"Well tell us already!" Tanya broke out. "It's not like you're not dying to."

Adam stood and said, "Drum roll please" and in true dramatic style announced, "May I introduce, this year's Keeper, the girl we all know, love and secretly fear this MISS JACQUELINE QUAINE!"

Jacque bellowed, "Of course I am!"

Adam continued, "Our new team Beaters who won't be beaten, the bashers who love to bash, the two who protect the rest of us poor players… MR JEFFERY CAMBELL AND MISS JUSTINE SNAAAAAAPE!!"

Justine sprung out of her chair and jumped in the air, Jeffery caught her in mid jump and swung her around shouting "YES" at the top of their lungs. Adam continued, "I've got two fellow Chasers so ladies and gentlemen, may I give you KRIS AND SAUL!!!"

Kris jumped up on his chair and began an impromptu dance, yelling "Oh yeah who's your daddy?!" and Saul in response jumped on his chair and bellowed, "I'M YOUR DADDY!! ON YOUR KNEES BIATCH!"

Everyone just laughed and cheered

"Well guys! Nice to see we can be so noisy as to be kicked out of the shopping centre at this ungodly hour but seriously!" It was eventually Tegan who brought the group back down to earth.

"Hang on," Justine asked, "we're missing a member of the team."

"Yeah Adam, you owe us a Seeker." Saul pointed out.

Adam grinned and took perverse pleasure in looking slowly around the group scratching his chin, "Hmm, yes I suppose I do, don't I? One problem, I just can't remember who it is. Jacque could it be you? Or Kris could it be you?" He stopped and went on, "No, no could it be you Tegan?"

Tegan just gave a snort of disbelief, "Yeah right."

Suddenly out of nowhere Adam stopped and said, "Oh I remember now!" and place his hands on Tanya shoulders from behind.

She went bright pink and started laughing, "You're not serious," she choked out. "I only tried out as a joke."

Adam said, "I saw your try out, you were really good."

* * *

Ax watched the girl. For the past two years he hadn't given her a second glance when she had accompanied him to the school prefects meeting. She had been a mouse, with baggy boyish clothes and unkempt carrot hair.

Now she was different. She was still tiny, but now her clothes were nice. She looked around the group and no longer hid behind shyness and blushes. Her hair billowed around her shoulders in golden red waves, her hair sparkled from the sunshine spilling in from above.

Who was this new Tanya Bussa? She intrigued him, and that really was saying something.

Justine voice dragged him out of his contemplation. "Well what are you doing?" she was asking him.

Crushing back down to earth he realised that the group was splitting up.

"I'm coming with you of course" he responded hoping it was the right answer. Justine looked at him as though he had just announced he was getting a sex change. And everyone started laughing. Kris slapped him on the back and said, "Good one mate!" and headed off after Alyson and Tegan, "She just told you she was going to ladies room and we were going to meet at the quidditch shop for fittings." He called over his shoulder.

Ax grinned and followed Justine towards the ladies room saying, "We can be toilet buddies!" in a fake gay accent.

He stole a glance over his shoulder.Tanya was laughing gleefully as she collected her things. He didn't understand why but he was glad.

* * *

At a quarter to ten, with heavier bags and lighter wallets they taxied back to Central Station in the very heart of Brisbane. They gave their tickets to a porter who directed them to a private platform.

Another security check later and they were looking at the gleaming titanium finish of the Kallaix school train. The train was fairly new, comprising of five opulent carriages and a gleaming engine. The front three cabins were for the junior school, with open plan seating, sets of seats on either side of the aisle. Each could fit 50 or so students with the front one containing a canteen area. The fourth carriage was made of small cabins each seating six or so students with an aisle running down one side for the majority of the senior school and the final fifth carriage was half comprised of cabins and then the prefect lounge.

The prefects room was massive, magically expanded. Though on the outside it looked to be a normal carriage, the inside could have housed a king's ball, but changed to compensate for the number of people housed within.

In the centre of the room was a large round glass table mounted on a titanium frame, surrounded by ten chairs. Eight of these chairs were colour coded to their respective prefects house colour, and when the prefects sat down, their names would appear on the back. The last two chairs were black, for the Head students.

Around the edge of the room were cosy lounges, and cabinets full of games and a game console for entertainment after the main meeting was concluded.

The prefects filed in, chatting, and took their respective seats. Kris tried to take the larger, more comfortable looking of the black seats, but Justine shooed him off, informing him loudly that she was far more important than he was, and therefore deserved to have the larger of the seats. There was no such problem for the other prefects, as their seats were all identical in shape, size and comfy-ness.

Kris looked bemusedly around the talking gathering, wondering what he was supposed to do. "I think you should get them to stop talking," Justine muttered out of the side of her mouth.

"How?" Kris demanded, but no help was forthcoming. "Y'ALL SHUT UP!" Kris finally decided to yell, effectively silencing the group. When he was sure that everyone was looking at him, and paying attention, "As the residing Head Boy of Kallaix Academy this year, I offically call the first senior prefects meeting to order."

Ax stared at Kris for a moment. "Wow," he muttered to Tanya, who was sitting next to him, "He actually has a brain."

"Probably picked it up from all the pompous parties his father has to have," Tanya muttered back.

Ax was first surprised that Tanya – had _spoken_, then realised what she had said, and guffawed loudly, and everyone turned to look at him.

Ax looked at them all, then quickly pointed at Tanya, "It was her," he said quickly.

"Yes, she sounds a _lot_ like a six foot tall blonde male," Justine quipped back immediately.

Ax blushed slightly.

"Aww, lookit him blush," Tanya teased, and everyone, like Ax, turned to stare. Tanya looked at them, then ducked her head slightly, hiding a grin.

"If we are over Ax's ability to _blush_ now," Kris growled from his _smaller_ seat, "Can we get on with what we are _supposed_ to be doing?"

Everyone turned now to look instinctively at Justine, expecting her to say something to get the meeting going. Justine looked down at them with a slightly surprised expression on her face, then pointed at Kris, "What're y'all lookin' at me for?" she demanded, "_I_ just stole the seat – _he_ does 'Important, I'm the big man at the head of the meeting thing'."

"So, we all know about the Unicorn Hunt, but we don't know much about it yet, so we'll discuss it in more detail later. On more important matters, we have to seriously discuss the details of our footy match with that Muggle team down the coast. Last year's fireworks charms when we won was totally acceptable – Dad was kept busy with clearing that up for months afterwards and couldn't practice with me."

Saul rolled his eyes, "So important," he yawned.

Kris shot him the dirtiest look imaginable. "Watch out Saul," Justine said in a loud stage-whisper, "He's got a wand and he's _not_ afraid to curse you!"

Saul got the hint, grinned and shut his mouth with an audible 'click'.

"But really Kris, he _does_ have a slight point – there _are_ other things we have to do this trip, and if you must bring the football game up at all this year, it would be a better idea to discuss the details of it with _the football team_, not us!" Justine said.

Jeffery piped up, "What am I? Vegemite toast?" As the co-captain of the school football team, he was highly insulted.

"Vegemite toast? Where'd you get _that_?" Adam demanded. "I'm part of the football team too, and it's not that important to the prefects. Justine's right, the _football team_ is the one you should talk to about strategy too. Most of the people here just know to cheer when the ball goes through our goals."

"Here, Here!" yelled Saul exuberantly, then 'click'ed again when Justine looked at him.

"So what's more important than footy?" Kris asked.

"Food!" Tegan yelled immediately.

"Good point, I second that!" Kris agreed. "This year we _really_ have to talk to the house elves about a monthly fish and chips night, and whether or not pineapple fritters will be available."

"Wow, this just gets better," Saul said, looked sideways at Justine, 'click'.

Alyson looked up, silver eyes reflecting the light, and flicked her hand in the air, "What I'd really like to know is what we have to do at the Sorting Ceremony today?"

"Do we have, like, a leaflet on that or something?" Kris enquired.

Jacque gave him a cool look, "If you'd read your letters properly, yes, there is," she sorted through a small pile of papers which had appeared in front of all the prefects, then selected one and held it up. Surrounded by a group of four dragons were the words, _Prefect Roles in the Sorting Ceremony_.

Alyson nodded emphatically, as she had the self-same leaflet open in front of her and was scanning it as they spoke.

The rest of the trip they spent in the prefects lounge, attempting to keep Kris from getting on to the subject of footy, they knew that once he got on the topic … well, suffice it to say that would be all they heard for the rest of the trip, unless Quidditch was mentioned. The boys migrated to the games console, and despaired when they found a football game installed and ready to play.

Whenever Ax scored a try in the match, he looked over to see if Tanya was watching, but she never looked up from the book that she was reading, sitting next to Justine, who was doing the same thing.

"What kind of book is '_I Want You Baby_'?" Saul asked, watching Justine with interest, waiting for the reaction.

"If I told you," Justine said, not looking up, "You would laugh at me. Since that's completely unacceptable, I guess you'll just have to use that thing in your head. I believe it's called a brain. Read the title, and _think_, I know it's hard …"

"Do you want someone to hold your hand?" Tanya asked, smirking slightly.

Ax glared, since _Saul_ had managed to managed to get Tanya's elusive attention and _he_ hadn't. Then he scored a try, "Yes," he said quickly, remembering her question.

Jacque was using her palmpilot, while Alyson and Tegan played exploding snap.

"Uh oh." Tegan said.

"What?" Alyson asked.

"We kinda scorched the table." Tegan said in a sheepish voice.

Alyson rubbed the scorch mark with her fingers, "It's not coming off." she said.

"What are we going to do?"

"Well, we can just kind of arrange the cards over the top and 'accidentally' forget we were playing a game and walk away." Alyson said reasonably.

"Yeah, but everyone would know we were the last to play with them, that idea would only work in the younger years' carriages."

"Well what do you suggest we do smarty pants?"

"Well we could always blame Saul, he won't remember if he did it or not. We can say he did it last year. Or we could always blast the table to pieces and blame the cards."

Justine just rolled her eyes and put down her book. Pointing her wand at the table she said, "Scourgify", causing pink bubbles to foam up everywhere.

In a blink of an eye the scorch marks disappeared.

"Oh, thanks." Tegan said.

* * *

Hermione rounded the corner, late already for her designated meeting time with Harry, but she really couldn't help that she had been caught up helping Professor Flitwick restore his classroom to order, she was after all, the head girl.

Hermione grinned as she got to the top of the stairs leading her into the entrance hall and stopped dead. Padma, that slimy cow, had her hand resting on Harry's shoulder. She saw red for a moment, her grin becoming a fierce scowl and her mood swinging into anger.

Walking down the stairs she plastered a smile on her face, and Padma looked up and grinned back. Did she not understand that all this flirting was disgusting? She was supposed to be with Ron, after all. Kissing Harry on the cheek Padma left before Hermione even reached them, and she got only a vague wave from the girl

She was still staring after her when strong arms wrapped around her waist and the familiar smell of Harry filled her nostrils as he kissed the side of her neck.

She smiled and turned to hug him tightly, "I'm sorry I'm late Harry," she mumbled and looked up at him.

Harry grinned, "I was almost in tears without you, look, see the slight glisten," he pulled a face and turned his head on a weird angle pointing to his left eye and Hermione couldn't help but laugh.

"Sorry love," she said, beaming at him, "But you seemed to have someone to pass the time with …?" she trailed away into question, to see what Harry said about Padma, at once jealous and angry that she should be jealous.

"Who? Padma? She was just asking where Ron was," Harry shrugged, and kissed her, on the lips this time. "I told her to try the library, but that he's probably working on top secret Unicorn Hunt stuff and shouldn't be disturbed."

Hermione had forgotten what her earlier question was, the moment his lips touched hers. She kissed him passionately and leant back grinning at him. "You know what Angel? I think I'm falling deeper in love with you everyday."

Harry gave her a wink and hugged her close, "What do you mean you think, you damn well better be!" he kissed her again before she could assure him that she would love him forever.

* * *

It's always a unique moment for everyone, she guessed. The moment when the students of Kallaix Academy get thier first veiw of the manor on the first day day of school. For the older students it was a time of homecoming, serenity, a time of familiarity.

For the middle school it could best be called a time of excitement, if there is a word to describe the students' natural high. But none could match the look of pure enthrallment on the face of the first years. The astonishment at the beauty of the grounds, the awe at the castle itself.

Justine smiled to herself as she watched her "home" ramble past the small carriage she was sharing with Kris, Alyson and Tegan from Serenity Crossing Train Station to the school. She could remember the first time she had made this trip. She had been a little firstie, shaking with exitement like everyone else, and her return, and newly transferred back from Hogwarts for the begging of fifth year. She had still been blown away.

The first thing you saw when you came through the wrought iron gates that were set into the sandstone walls surrounding the front of the school was the dying light shining on the lake. Sparkling deep blue turned indigo by the rapidly approaching night, surrounded by towering trees. The crimson foliage of the Flame Tree, the soft yet vibrant violet of the Jacaranda. The massive Camphor Laurels and the bursts of golden in the Wattle.

Willow trees dipped their silver branches into the lake and the ground was covered with very green, softgrass. Flowers grew all over the grounds in little ordered patches and hedges edged every walkway and drive. In the twilight these details weren't clear, but Justine knew them by heart.

They rounded the lake and Justine was delighted to see that the McEwan dragon, a glistening blue water serpent dragon, had decided to come and greet the students home. She was the maternal dragon, and the students were always safe swimming in the lake as she would watch over them. She cooed hello to everyone as they passed.

As she drove up the way, lined by massive fig trees and meticulously kept hedges she was given tantilising snippets of the castle by night. A huge dusky sandstone building full of colonial stained glass and ivy growing on the walls.

The elegant spiky red Petersen dragon stood off to one side, enjoying the attention from the Students. "She's such a poser," Tegan commented. "Her breed gives my Dad hell, constantly posing for muggles to take photos."

As the carriage stopped, Justine looked up to see the spectral presence of the ice bluish Steelwell dragon circling overhead, and from the smells she could smell from the kitchen, assumed the Wentworth dragon would be skulking around the back of the Manor, hoping for a nice house elf to take pity on it and bring it something to eat.

The dragons were spoilt rotten by the students and staff alike, but they had lived here since eggs, as had their parents before them, and earned their keep as the guardians of the school.

"Welcome home," Kris said as he climbed down and offered his hand to Justine, "We have to go find Mrs McGuire to get the list of names we have to call for the ceremony. Did you get your bag?"

Justine smiled and took his hand, "Yep, let's go."

They met up with the others as they went up the front stairs, "Hey,are we all ready for the Ceremony?" Alyson asked the group.

Justine laughed as Alyson walked _all_ the boys through the ceremony _again_.

She was about to follow everyone up the stairs when somone rudely pushed past her, causing something in her bag to dig into her side. Reaching into her bag she took out the now familiar green tassled bag, and shaking her head took out the bracelet and put it on.

"Wow! Where on earth did you get _that_?Are those rocks real?" Asked Tanya, who was the only one left, with Ax.

Justine looked up at them. "I got it from the only boy I ever loved. My love just wasn't good enough for him". She laughed bitterly as Ax grabbed her hand and squeezed it tight, leading her into the Manor.

* * *

OMG! Chapter Two! (Princess has had way too much sugar!)

Thankyou so much to all of the reviewers! This is actually my first Fanfiction I'm publishing (ebil Wolfmoon's had ton's) so it's so great to read your reveiws!

goDDarkness - OMG you rock! your review was soooo helpful for our orientation! Don't worry, the Unicorn Hunt is NOTHING like the tri-wizard tournament! Draco's charachter will make more sense soon,I promise!

Ava Muroe - Thankyou so much for reviewing!

anoymousy - Here... is.... chappies! 'precious' eh? laughs._ I like to think so!_

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CantFindAGoodName - Wolfmoon lot the plot when she saw you had reveiwed! (remembers her friend giggling) :) Thankyou so much for reviewing!

Uten - Shhh... your like giving stuff away! looks around Luna on a horse coming up so stay tuned!

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Princess Freaks out cause she got to write the thankyous OMG Thankyou Everyone! REVEIW FOR US! (flames accepted - helps usdevelop - note that Draco is getting better, we fixed him after the last comments - in the next few chapters we develop him)


	3. The Decision

(Dedicated to Unga Bunga!!! - My favourite Review!)

* * *

Chapter Three: **_The Decision_**

They stood together just outside the school gates. Kris and Tegan, waiting.

"It's a boomerang, they always come back."

"Kris it's been over an hour, I don't think its coming back," Tegan said in a consoling tone, "You just have to accept this."

They were waiting fora Portkey to activate, so they could join the others at Tanya's house for the April break, and were throwing boomerangs while they waited. The group always tried to do something together, and this year, with the lovely weather they'd been having, Tanya's house on the Noosa beachfront seemed like heaven.

In Australia, the legal wizarding age was sixteen, and all of the prefects were proud to have their Apparating licence. (Although it had taken Saul two tries, and Jeffery and Ax had to appeal to the Australian ministry, as they were technically underage in their home countries.) Portkey was sending their bags and things in about five minutes.

"Portkey is ready guys!" A student called out to them.

"Let's go Kris," Tegan said, laying a hand on his arm. "The boomerang is gone, trust me, it's time to move on now."

"O … ok then," Kris said dejectedly and, with his head bowed and shoulders slumped, walked away from the gates, towards Tegan.

There was a sudden whoosh of wings in the air, followed by the thud of wood hitting flesh and Kris's cry of pain. Then a tiny, pure black dragon, hardly the size of the boomerang, landed on the ground, in front of, was it … it was! Kris's boomerang!

"My boomerang!" Kris fell upon it with a shout of glee. Then scowled at the dragon. "Aiden?" he enquired, arching an eyebrow.

The dragon looked innocently up at them. _"I was waiting for you to give up, it was _quite_ amusing,_" the dragon murmured in their minds.

"You little shit!" Kris yelled. "You stole my boomerang!" then he turned to Tegan. "I told you they always come back. This one was brought back, but oh well, it still came!"

Tegan rolled her eyes. "Of course Kris, whatever you say."

Aiden let out a draconic sigh. "_Well, my fun is over now. I suppose you will be leaving for Tanya's house. Please pass on my regards, and inform her that I miss her already._"

"You only said goodbye an hour and a half ago Aiden, get over it," Kris growled.

"_We dragons become attached quite easily_," the dragon sniffed, "_It's something a human like you wouldn't understand. Besides, she has a very comfortable shoulder."_

"I can become attached when I want to!" Kris howled, with a mock wounded expression.

"You can?" Tegan asked, staring at Kris as if he had suddenly turned into an alien.

"The tabloids think Justine and I have been attached to one another for years! Just ask them, they'll tell you I'm great boyfriend material."

"Yes, and the press think that Jeffery's father can be sensible. Come on, you're asking _them_ to vouch for you?"

"Good point … let's go," Kris quickly changed the subject, in case anyone else heard him losing the argument.

They appeared in a fairly large living room. Suddenly they were surrounded by … white. White walls with metallic trimming and a glass wall showing a panoramic view of the beach. Down on the beach they could see the rest of the group, the females lounging in bikinis and the males in board shorts, showing off their muscles to the watching Muggle girls. Ax had accumulated himself a following of gigglers.

"Why does that happen to him _every_ time he goes out … They could be paying attention to much more handsome guys …"

"Though I would not want to touch him with a ten foot pole, even I can admit that he's handsome as."

Kris scowled. Down on the beach, Ax was signing little pieces of paper. "Is he signing autographs with his phone number again?"

Tanya appeared outside the wall that doubled as a door. "How'd you guess? Come on, someone has to stop him, maybe you can help me deflate his ego Tegan … I've been trying. Let me show you to the beach."

"Yeah!" Kris cried out, "I can find myself one of those really cute Muggle girls!"

"Unfortunately, Ax has stolen every female heart on the beach … I don't think you'll have much luck," Tanya said, "Hate to burst your bubble, but truth is truth."

"I _knew_ I should have made _him_ wait for the bags …"

"Let's just go," Tegan said quickly.

"Yup," Kris agreed, not so enthusiastic as he had been now.

They walked down a set of sweeping stone steps opening onto the beach, and Kris turned to look at the massive structure of white paint and glass that they had just exited. "Wow … how'd you manage to convince the owner to let us Apparate in there?" he enquired, sounding very awed.

"I hardly think I have to convince myself to allow my friends to come over … and the house_ is_ mine … do the maths Kris. You know my parents are dead, and I inherited a whole heap more junk, not just this thing."

Kris looked at her. "Why did no one tell me you were rich? Why have I not heard about your parties before? Why was I not invited to them?"

"Because there haven't _been_ any," Tanya growled, obviously having gone through this when the others had arrived.

"She only just became social," Saul pointed out.

"What about a boyfriend?" Kris asked, looking at Tanya as if she had suddenly revealed she was really a Muggle.

"I haven't had one of those," Tanya replied calmly, ignoring the surprised gasps of her friends.

"You're seventeen and you've never had a boyfriend?" Saul demanded.

"Yes."

Ax walked over and draped an arm over Tanya's shoulders. "I'd be happy to rectify that," he offered, and the rest of the female population on the beach glared at Tanya with undisguised envy.

She reached up and pushed Ax's arm off. "Back off playboy," she told him coldly, "I'm long over my crush on you. I'll rectify my lack of romantic experience when I find someone worth the trouble of going through all that crap with."

Ax looked at her, surprised, stunned and desiring her more than ever. "It's alright Axy," one of the girls purred, coming up behind him and wrapping arms tightly around his waist to breath in his ear, "I'd be happy to make myself available to you."

Ax pushed her away and stalked down towards the water. "I think you offended him," Justine muttered to Tanya.

"His ego could use deflating," Tanya responded.

Suddenly Saul and Kris came up behind her, lifted her up and carried her, shrieking, towards the water, while the rest of the group flowed to their feet and followed them. Swinging her between them, Saul and Kris tossed Tanya gently into what was for them waist deep water.

She came up spluttering, the water just up to her breasts, red hair flowing around her in the water and over her pale skin.

Coughing and spluttering, she glared at her friends, then Ax came over and patted her lightly on the back. Throwing herself sideways in an attempt to avoid his hand, Tanya stumbled and nearly went under. Ax quickly caught her and set her upright.

She glared at him. "I _can_ swim on my own," she snarled, and pulled away from her, diving smoothly into the water and swimming beneath the clear green sea, a pale shadow with hair flowing around her, surfacing several meters away, shaking her head to get the water from her eyes.

"I do the same thing for everyone, don't think you're so special," Ax said to Tanya she resurfaced.

Cheated of using Tanya as a victim, Saul moved as quietly as possible over to the other girls, and suddenly splashed Justine. Justine shrieked in fury, then gave Saul a once-over. "It's on," she said and splashed him back, Tanya dove beneath the waves again and swam strongly over to join the fun, and soon the whole group was involved in a high spirited game of water wars.

In all the confusion, Saul lost track of Justine, and was starting to worry – he knew she would be after him … as he dove sideways to avoid a splash from Ax, he lost track of his pants as well.

Justine resurfaced, waving board-shorts over her head like a trophy. Saul, ducking in the water, glared up at her, "Bitch."

Justine smirked. "What did you expect?"

"Just that," Saul replied. "I _knew_ you wanted to see what was under them shorts."

"Oh yes, oh baby," Justine fanned herself with the board shorts.

Saul suddenly lunged forward, his bare butt cheeks facing the shore, where the girls were swooning, and _someone_ was yelling for Justine to go after 'the hot one', which one could only assume meant Ax.

Butt naked, Saul was after Justine and his board shorts. "Hell! I paid _twenty bucks_ for those board shorts! Give them back!" he was yelling.

"Wow, _so_ much money," Kris muttered in the background.

Justine, however, was more worried about the naked guy charging towards her. "Jeffery! Think quick!" she threw the wet shorts to Jeffery, who was hit in the face, not catching fast enough.

"Aww, dude!" he yelled, snatching them away, spitting into the ocean with a look of disgust, "Right in the crutch! Ew!!" Suddenly he saw Saul charging towards him.

"Shit!" he yelled, and threw the shorts, which sailed over Saul's head. Jacque reached up and caught them gracefully. She was a keeper, after all.

Saul spun and lunged, watched in helpless fury as the shorts sailed over his head to Jeffery again, and turned around, to see shorts thrown back to Jacque.

"Ahhh! Will _someone_ give me my shorts back?" he demanded, spinning around again.

"Why would they do that?" Justine asked. "This is too much fun."

"You want me bad, face it," he said, forgetting the matter of the shorts momentarily.

"You wish," Justine replied, faking a repulsed look.

"Playin' all hard to get?"

"No, playing all not interested."

Tegan, who was standing next to Saul looked him over without embarrassment. "Wow, is that shrivilage? Or something more major?"

Saul looked at her, saw the direction of her gaze and followed it, confused. "It's COLD, alright?"

"Whatever you say," Tegan replied, unfazed. "Would someone give him his shorts back? That's just scary."

Adam, who had gotten possession the shorts, shrugged and tossed them to Saul, who caught them, then did a little show for the girls on the beach of redressing.

Once Saul had redressed, the group headed up the beach, to where Alyson was lazing on the towels with a small contingent of boys standing around, trying to catch her attention.

"Are these guys bothering you Aly?" Ax enquired, hands travelling towards a shrunken sword, a dangerous gleam in his eyes. He knew that Alyson did not enjoy the attention of nameless, brainless wanna-be macho types.

"Guys?" Alyson looked up, blinking. "Oh! Guys! No, they weren't bothering me… at least not yet."

"Bugger off anyway," Kris told the hopeful guys … hopeless, more like.

Now that he was sure Alyson wasn't being bothered, Ax stood over her with a wicked grin, dripped water. "Ax, if you get that water near me you are a dead man!" Alyson said warningly.

Ax grinned roguishly and shook himself, as a dog might, showering droplets of water over Alyson, who shrieked, because the water was cold. "Don't touch me!" she warned him, but too late, as he reached down and pulled her to her feet, for a bear hug.

"You're _cold_! Let go of me!" Alyson screamed.

"Don't you love me anymore?" Ax pouted.

"I love you just fine … when you're _dry_, now let go."

"OK," Ax said agreeably, and dropped her.

Meanwhile, Jacque and Jeffery were still on the topic of the brainless guys. "Should we hex them?" Jacque murmured very quietly to Jeffery.

He looked at the retreating males. "Only if they come back," he replied.

"Good plan," Jacque said, "Want to see the Kallaix website I've been working on?"

"Yeah, OK," he sat down behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, looking over her shoulder as she set up the palmpilot.

* * *

Seamus Finnegan fell flat on his back to avoid the mace which only minimally missed his nose as it went zipping over his head, lifting his legs and flipping back to his feet, turning and grinning at his opponent, holding his own weapon tighter. He missed the days when he had been in the beginners sword play class, these days he was terrified that he would die every other class. 

Again with a mighty swing from his adversary Seamus was forced to defend, this time the mace swinging down from overhead to almost cleave his head in half, Seamus swung up and stepped to the side of the blow, moving as quickly as he could out of the reach of his opponent

He faced his opponent who lazily lifted his own mace again and grinned. "Come now Seamus, your just not putting in any effort today are you?"

Seamus grinned. "Damn you Malfoy, I'll beat you one day, just you watch!" Seamus parried at him with a strong upper thrust, which Draco knocked cleanly to the ground, stepping over it to kick Seamus in the shoulder, causing the Gryffindor to smack inot the wall.

Draco looked at him condescendingly and let out a short laugh, "You irishmen, you have such imaginations…"

Seamus grinned back and squished his nose up happily, as if in a nice daydream. "Im imagining you flat on your back…"

Draco smirked and swung at Seamus's neck, forcing him to duck and defend, "I'm worried, you fantasise about getting me on my back? I knew you were frigging gay, I knew it!"

Seamus chuckled and without warning swung at Draco's side, stepping into the swing lightly, crouching down as he went to add diagonal thrust. The Slytherin, with fast reflexes, managed to jump out of the way, but the mace ripped through the silken fabric off his silver shirt, shredding it into tattered strips down on side. Seamus knew he was in trouble even before he loked up at Draco. He knew the snooty little Head Boy had gotten this training outfit specifically tailored for sword play, but Seamus had ripped it to shreads with his mace.

"Uh, Draco, I was an accident I swear!" Seamus said with a hopeful smile as he backed across the room, Draco stalking him, a malicious gleam in his eye.

"Your in so much trouble," he quipped, grabbing his own sword off a rack as they passed, tossing Seamus his and discarding his mace.

Seamus let out a small laugh and armed himself. "Remember, if I die, people will come after you! I'll haunt you! Oh, and make sure Dean gets my coolest stuff."

Draco laughed and a short sword fight ensued, which ended with Draco victorious and Seamus flat on his back with a sword at his neck. "Seamus, you should know by now, never mess with the Slytherin snob's precious clothing, it's instant death," came Harry's voice from the other side of the room. "I once accidently threw a red sock in some washing, and died all Draco's underwear pink, I think I still have the scar's in some very… precious… areas"

"I'm not a snob!" Draco pouted. "And it took the house elves hours to get my underwear right again, as I recall you deserved it."

"Are you ready for a real match, you bloody woman?" Harry asked as he picked up a sword and faced Draco.

"You don't stand a chance Potter." Draco stated with his trademark smirk.

* * *

"Wow, you really can cook," Adam didn't know which girl to look at. 

"Which dish would you be referring to?" Tegan asked.

"Umm … all of them?" he hoped this was the right answer, as when girls asked questions, when you answered them wrong, you could get hurt.

The girls had all teamed up to make the meal, and the dishes were … eclectic to say the least. Tegan had done big juicy steaks, Jacque had done pizza, Alyson decided on satay chicken, Tanya had _wanted_ to do pizza, but Jacque stepped in before her, so she ended up with roast vegetables, and Justine made cheesecake … which was also on the 'main course' table.

Kris and Saul had piled their plates high with a bit of everything, and Justine was looking oddly at Saul's plate, which had _her_ cheesecake right next to Tegan's steak. In fact, everyone was looking somewhat oddly at this. "What?" Saul asked.

"Cheesecake and steak on the same plate?" Justine asked, curling a lip in slight disgust.

"It's a taste infusion my friends," Saul told them, grinning, then cut a piece of steak and put cheesecake on top of it to eat.

"Ew!" everyone cried in unison except Kris, who looked at Saul, then shrugged and tried it himself. It soon became a challenge between the guys to discover the nastiest combination – the girls were the judges, and depending on the volume on the ewws, the grades were awarded.

Jeffery had satay chicken and roast broccoli, then politely enquired whether Tanya had any chocolate sauce. He got the loudest eww of anyone who had not yet even eaten the food.

Tanya shrugged and walked over to a large cupboard and returned with an armful of various sauces. "I love you," Ax cried, spotting the bottle of brandy sauce.

Tanya shrugged, dumping the armful of sauces on the table, which were immediately pounced upon by the guys. "I hate you," Justine muttered to Tanya, "I was feeling sick enough with just the _food_!"

Tanya smiled, "I'm enjoying this."

Justine sighed, and watched as Ax selected her cheesecake. "What are you going to do with it? Not the ketchup! Not the ketchup! I'm begging you!"

"No, the brandy sauce," Ax replied.

Justine's eyes widened in delight, "I'm in!" she yelled and hurried around the table, plonked herself on his lap and stole his fork.

"Hey! My fork!"

"Steal Kris's."

"He's already used it!"

"Here," Tanya sighed, passing him a spoon. "You don't just need forks you know. Spoons work just as well."

"Oh, really? I'd never have guessed," Ax replied, taking the spoon from her.

To the surprise of everyone, Alyson ended up winning the night, after requesting ice cream to go with satay chicken and bbq sauce … she only won after eating half the plate.

After that, everyone was treated to a tour of the house. Kris and Tegan were amazed to discover the large living room in which they had arrived was actually the smaller of two. The entire top floor of the house was a single multi-purpose room filled with tons of equipment. The third and fourth floors were bedrooms and bathrooms, second floor had a library and office, and the bottom floor had a double-story living room facing the beach (which was where everyone arrived), a kitchen-dining room plus a small toilet/change room.

The bedrooms were _huge_, or, in Justine's words, "Scarily echoy," and because she didn't like it at all, they all went to sleep downstairs in the double-story living room.

As the sun set, Alyson, Justine, Tanya and Jacque turned to Tegan. "Taken the potion?"

"Of course, like I'd want to hurt any of you … or the house," Tegan replied. "Everything looks breakable … so not at home here."

Having been a werewolf for three and a half years now, Tegan found breakable things and full moons really didn't mix. "Well, let's get down to the cellar, I'll get you settled in for the night," Alyson soothed.

"Don't worry, it looks breakable, but most of it is strong as steel," Tanya added.

"Kinda like you?" Tegan tried to joke.

"Lots like me," Tanya smiled back.

"Come on bugalugs," Justine said, draping an arm over Tegan's shoulders.

"We'll see you guys soon … mind if we turn on the Quiddy?" Kris was hopeful.

"Go ahead, but it goes _off_ when we get back," Tanya replied.

Kris tried the famous puppy-dog eyes. "But you _wuv _me!" he cried.

"I _wuv_ my sanity more."

"You can't stop me! I shall rule the TV remote!"

"Sorry, I have a clapper, and its _my_ house," Tanya replied. "You may watch Quidditch all you like when I'm not here, but otherwise, save it for Kallaix … it's not like we don't know that you steal the TV in your common room every night to watch sports. Nothing against Quidditch, but it gets a bit much for us gals sometimes."

"No one protests!"

"Honey, they're _scared_ of you," Justine told him.

"Whatever," Kris muttered, and sulked off the living room, where the sound of cheering was suddenly heard.

"Yay, stuck with a Quiddyhead for who knows how long," Saul sighed.

"Guys?" Tegan's voice was slightly strained.

"Let's go, cellar this way," Tanya said rapidly. "Alyson, you'll stay for a minute once we leave, just to make sure everything's OK?"

Silver eyes smiled, "Anything for a friend," Alyson replied.

Jacque and Jeffery took a three-seater lounge, and Tanya and Alyson, when she returned, took one two seater lounge each. These three couches enclosed a small square area facing an entertainment centre. On the floor Ax, Justine, Kris and Adam laid across a large, enchanted mattress, covered in a pile of blankets. Everyone gathered around to watch Pirates of the Caribbean.

When the movie was over, Jacque and Jeffery were forced to turn their couch turned bed around, as no one wanted to see them in action. Saul raised a finger to his lips and cast a silencing charm on the area. Everyone struggled to conceal their laughter.

"Saul, are you going to tell us what you're going to sleep on yet?" Tanya asked with a sigh. Saul had been loudly proclaiming that her deck chairs were the most comfortable things in the world, and he would be sleeping on one of them. Everyone thought he was joking, as usual.

"On the deckchair, I told you," Saul replied, then wandered outside, and there was the sound of the deck chair dragging across the outside tile, and Saul's curses. Then the door closed, "Finally," Saul could be heard to say, "Wingardium Leviosa!"

There was a short silence, then, "Justine! It's not working!"

"You're not saying it properly – you _know_ you can hardly say leviosa when you're awake, right now you're half asleep."

"Oh, right …" another pause, "Help?"

Justine sighed. "Your princess in shining nightdress has arrived," she told him.

"And she looks _hot_," Saul flirted.

"Save it for the morning when I can retaliate properly."

"You're on baby."

"I'm seriously going to regret saying that … Wingardium Leviosa!" A moment later a deck chair floated into the room, followed by an exultant Saul.

"Haha! My accommodation has arrived! Anyone want to join me?" Saul shot a suggestive look at Justine.

"You wish," was the unison reply of the females, by now well used to Saul's rather pathetic attempts to get laid.

There was a disturbance in the middle of the night when Tegan's brother, Mark, Apparated in, landing on top of Justine and Kris, who both screamed loudly. "Wow, I never knew you screamed like a chick Kris!" Mark's voice exclaimed from the darkness.

"Mark! What are you doing here?" Justine knew her cousin's voice perfectly.

There was a flicker, and Tanya turned the light on, everyone sat blinking for a while, then greetings were exchanged and Mark explained why he had come in the middle of the night. "OK, I forgot that most people go to sleep before three in the morning, so sue me!"

"You wanted to check on Tegan?" Justine translated, arching an eyebrow.

"That's the one," Mark yawned.

"Men. Can't you try to have an emotional moment without ruining it?" Justine demanded.

"How did I ruin it?" Mark asked, around a second yawn, "It's three o'clock in the morning dammit, and I've already been to sleep! This is _not_ natural! I think I'm doing a good job. I was worried about my widdle sister."

"Your widdle sister is downstairs ripping pillows to pieces as we speak. I think she's probably enjoying herself," Alyson said.

"I hope you didn't leave the _good_ cushions down there," for a moment Mark looked worried.

"It's called a cushion charm," Alyson said, stretching slightly, "Tegan was worried about breaking things, so I thought I'd better make her a little more comfortable. She isn't usually transforming in one of her friends places."

"Thanks," Mark said. "I should probably go."

"What kind of hostess would I be to let you arrive and leave in the space of five minutes at three in the morning?" Tanya asked. "Stay the night, you can go back when you wake up."

"Do you really want this lump in the middle of your living room at midday tomorrow?" Kris asked.

"This _lump_ just got a million dollar deal for his latest movie. I need my beauty sleep."

"Wanna share some of the riches?" Saul asked from his deckchair.

"Dude, why are you in a deckchair?"

"It's comfortable," Saul replied protectively, then added to the chair, "Don't worry Bobby, I appreciate you, even if no one else does."

"Bobby?" everyone stared at Saul.

"I couldn't just sleep with him without knowing his name," Saul said. "And he wasn't exactly forthcoming so I gave him one myself – we're soul mates," he wiped away a tear.

"Geez, I never you went _that_ way … is there any name for guys who go out with deckchairs?" Ax demanded.

"Mark, where are you going to sleep?" Tanya asked.

Mark, who hadn't hadn't moved since he arrived, simply snuggled under the blankets between Justine and Ax. "Here will be fine," he replied.

"Hey! You stole my hot water bottle!" Ax yelled.

"Where is it?" Mark asked, snuggling up against Justine to let Ax find the hot water bottle. "Oh! I get it. Justine, you're so warm!"

"Hot don't you mean," Saul called from Bobby.

* * *

It was the last Hogsmeade visit before the Unicorn Hunt was to begin, and Harry was determined to enjoy himself, and make sure that all of his friends relaxed, for once. Ron, Hermione and Draco had been working around the clock to try and get everything for the Hunt organised. Today, Harry had decided (without telling his friends _all_ of his plans), they were going to all go down to the village and just hang out, talk about things that _normal_ teenagers might talk about, rather than plans and complicated magics that would get the Unicorn Hunt to work. 

Of course, Draco and Ron would probably bitch about it all, Harry thought, and his face fell a little. The situation between Draco and Ron was one that was like a constant itch he couldn't scratch. Draco was his brother, Ron was his best friend, and they continued to hate one another.

Ron refused to trust Draco, and had, for a long time, tried to persuade Harry that Draco was evil and would turn on him. That had come to stop when Harry had yelled at Ron afternoon, but he knew that Ron's feelings had not changed – Hermione had told him that Ron mentioned Draco occasionally when they were alone, and never in a good way.

Of course, Draco was no angel himself. He continually bated Ron about anything and everything, and Ron baited him back. Harry had ended up informing them that if Draco baited Ron about his family, or if Ron baited Draco about his father in particular, he'd hurt them both. They now tended to avoid the subjects now … at least, they did when Harry was around.

Draco had accepted some of Harry's friends, especially Seamus. He didn't really like Hermione, but the two of them put up with each other and remained civil at all times. Hermione had not forgotten all of Draco's old insults, and Draco, while he no longer acted as a pureblood was still having difficulties completely accepting Hermione has a child of Muggle parentage.

Well, today, _hopefully_ they would be able to get along for a couple of hours while they had a relaxing drink. He had asked both Ron and Draco separately to meet him in the Entrance Hall before the students left the school, and when he arrived, Ron was, predictably enough, late.

"Well, let's go shall we?" Draco asked, "As Head Boy, I don't have to wait for Filch, after all."

"No, we have to wait for Ron," Harry said.

"Weasley?" Draco groaned. "Why? Why in the world do we need to wait for him?"

"Because he's coming with us," Harry said stubbornly.

"Harry!" Draco sighed.

"What?" Harry asked innocently. "Ron's getting better, isn't he?"

"Only when you're around," Draco replied wearily. "Why must you continue to inflict his presence upon me?"

"Because you might be my brother, but Ron is my friend, Draco," Harry informed Draco loftily, "The two of you could be really good friends if you _tried_."

"I do try!" Draco protested.

"That's what Ron said," Harry muttered. Just then, Ron and Hermione appeared at the top of the stairs – Hermione must have joined Ron on the way, Harry thought. Ron bounded to stand near Harry, and Draco backed off to let the two of them talk.

"What's _he_ doing here?" Ron demanded.

"Coming with us," Harry said evenly. Ron opened his mouth to protest, but Harry forestalled him, "Draco has already agreed to it."

Ron's shoulders slumped and he nodded miserably, as if he had just been informed that he would be given a life sentence in Azkaban. "Fine," he muttered. Harry sighed inwardly. It had been over a month since he had tried to get the two of them to get along last time, and it looked like neither of them was willing to give it another try.

"Well, let's go then!" Hermione said with false cheer. With the two head students accompanying them, they were permitted to leave the school grounds without getting into trouble. As they walked, Harry did his best to chat about everything and get all of his friends to get involved with the conversation as well, but it wasn't working very well. Hermione was doing her best to help him, of course, but it didn't do too much.

Finally, without much talk on either Ron or Draco's part, they reached the Three Broomsticks and settled down over cups of Butterbeer. Everything went well – Ron and Draco spoke to both Harry and Hermione, but refused to talk to one another, like five year olds holding a grudge.

Harry was tempted to point this out to them, but he didn't have a death wish, and likening Draco to a child would likely incite the Slytherin to attempt to kill even Harry, his brother. And if he said that, Ron would refuse to talk to him as well, which would not be pleasant – Ron held onto grudges very tightly.

After a while of strained conversation, Harry sighed at the failure of his plan. Why couldn't the two of them just get along? "Why can't you two just get along?" He asked the two of them wearily.

"I would if he would," Draco and Ron said simultaneously, then Ron added, "It's not my fault that he's gonna turn out exactly like his father did."

"Ron!" Hermione scolded him.

"Ron, Draco doesn't mention your parents, so don't talk about his."

"It's not my fault his mother was a slut who couldn't raise anyone right," Ron muttered, and both Harry and Draco turned to look at him with fury in their eyes. _Slap_, Harry whacked Ron around the head.

"If you say that again, I will kill you," Harry said dangerously.

"Not if I get there first," Draco snarled, "And what are you talking about, my mother being a slut? You don't think your daddy could have sired all seven of you lot?"

_Slap_, Harry hit Draco over the head, somewhat softer than he had hit Ron, and Ron leapt to his feet and stalked out of the pub, Padma, who had just walked in, joined him, and asked what was wrong. Still within clear earshot of Harry, Ron snarled to her, "Harry's always being nicer to Draco than he is to me … should just transfer to Slytherin and be done with it."

Harry half rose, but Draco pulled him back down, "You know Weasley won't listen to you," he pointed out. For a moment there was silence, then Draco added, "Sorry, I took that too far. I shouldn't have retaliated, but he made me really angry, talking about mum like that."

Harry nodded, "She's my mother too now," he pointed out, "I feel just as angry with him as you do … but Molly was the first real mother figure I had, and I won't tolerate you saying stuff like that about her either."

Suddenly someone behind Draco slapped him, _hard_. "That's for dissing my family."

Then Harry got slapped around the head as well, "That's for hitting my brother.

Then both of them got slapped at the same time, "And that's for being stupid. Don't worry, I hit Ron too – for being stupid and dissing Harry's new family." Ginny Weasley plopped herself down in the seat that her brother had recently vacated. "Hi!" she smiled at them, anger apparently vented for the moment.

"Hi," Draco smiled back, rubbing the back of his head, "You've got a strong slap."

"I have brothers," Ginny shrugged. "What do you expect?"

Draco laughed, "The only brother I have is Harry, and I wouldn't hurt him too badly …"

Harry laughed. "Do I need to remind you about-"

"No, you don't," Draco interrupted and turned to Ginny, asking her what her day had been like. Harry and Hermione both just rolled their eyes. Draco and Ginny hadn't had much to do with one another before, but they seemed to be getting on alright. "How about we leave them to it?" Hermione suggested, arching a seductive eyebrow.

"Where do you propose we go?"

"The Astronomy tower?" Hermione suggested.

"Bold one, aren't you?" Harry asked, "Sounds like a good plan to me."

* * *

Breakfast next morning was a subdued affair. Tegan was completely worn out, and glared at anyone who asked why she had feathers in her hair. Even Alyson was only able to grumble. 

Adam, Tanya and Justine were_ trying_ to make everyone perk but, but no one was paying much attention … not even ice cream for breakfast seemed to do anything.

"So, I suppose we aren't going to the conference thing? I mean, it starts in three days," Kris remarked as everyone wandered outside to lie on deckchairs. Saul grieved because bringing Bobby out was 'too hard without magic'. He had to lie on a new chair, which he named Frank.

"Conference?" Everyone looked at Kris blankly.

"Oh! I remember!" Justine cried suddenly, "That Unicorn Hunt thingy!"

Alyson shuddered delicately.

"It's on in three _days_? And you haven't talked to us about it again?" Tanya demanded.

"Well you didn't bring it up again," Kris sounded as if this was reason for everything.

"Because we _forgot_!" Alyson muttered. "It's called _reminding_."

"Well … fine … it's on in three days – do we want to go or not?" Ax reasoned.

"Yeah let's go," Tegan shrugged. "It's not like we could lose after all."

"So where is it? Sydney?" Jacque asked.

"No," Kris said, looking cautiously at the sky. "It's in England."

Justine spun around to face him and said a single word, "_Where_?"

"Uh … Hogwarts?" he said tentatively.

"OK, count me out," Justine said, and stalked down to the beachfront.

"Should someone go and talk to her? What's wrong with her?" Tanya asked.

"We'll explain," Ax said, Kris and Alyson looked at him.

"No, _you'll_ explain. We'll go talk to Justine," Kris said.

"OK," Ax shrugged. "Rather you than me anyway – she's gonna be pissed."

"Hearing that way … why don't _you_ go?"

"You already offered, off you go now!"

"Tell them," Tegan ordered Ax.

"OK, so you know that me, Adam, Alyson, Tegan and Justine were at Hogwarts for fourth year, right?" Ax said. Everyone nodded, waiting for him to get to the important, unknown information. "Just checking," he said defensively. "Anyway, while we were there, Justine fell for this pretty-boy bastard from another house."

"The only guy she ever loved," Tanya muttered. "He gave her some big stone bracelet didn't he?"

"Yeah, they were diamonds, nice piece of work, even if he wasn't. So, Justine loves him, and _thinks_ he loves her back. I could have told her he didn't love at all. She wasn't hearing it though. In the first week of our fifth year, which is September in Europe, he showed his true colours. He told her she was a cheating little bitch and he hated her. Justine didn't know what he was talking about and ran for the Gryffindor tower. He followed her.

"I don't know exactly what happened, but they were in the common room, and he was yelling at her, saying how _she_ broke _his_ heart (not that he had one), and I heard. I went to check out what was going on, and saw the bastard hit her. I jumped down and told him to fuck off, but he didn't want to, so I introduced him to Mr. Pointy," Ax patted his sword affectionately. "He left, and Justine broke down – she didn't understand what was happening. I think she still loves him somehow even now…"

"Three days later her uncle, Severus Snape, who's the Potions Master (they call everyone _Professor_ over there), asked who wanted to come back to Australia with Justine. I offered, even though I'd been in Hogwarts ever since I started school, Adam decided he was ready to come home, and Tegan and Alyson were sick of Hogwarts and the idiots there … besides, they weren't gonna let Justine go nowhere without them, Tegan had only been bitten by a werewolf a couple of months before, and she was having a hard time at Hogwarts."

"Amen to that sister!" Tegan yelled. "Severus sends me wolfsbane potion once a month. It pays to have friends in high places."

"So, I guess no trip to England after all … Pity, I was almost getting excited," Tanya remarked.

Just then, Justine stalked up with Kris and Alyson behind her. "We're going to England. We're going to show those English bastards once and fall that AUSSIES RULE!"

"AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE!" Kris yelled at the top of his lungs.

"OI! OI!_ OI!!!_" Everyone else thundered back.

"Get ready to Apparate home – we need to pack," Justine said, "I'll owl Uncle Sevie and tell him we're coming."

* * *

YAY!!! 

Ok, so we realise we're giving you alot of OC'ed'ness, but we need you to get used to them before we throw them into Hogwarts, which is coming REALLY soon. For those who are having trouble keeping up however, this is the basic run down of the ones you might need to remember. We're actually making a website to help you with all this, sorry.

**Justine Snape** - Head Girl, Nice, Loved... Has a problem with negative emotion

**Kristopher 'Kris' Crompton** - Easy going, loveable, Just all round nice guy, head boy, son of the Aussie Minister of Magic.

**Alexander 'Ax' Kidson** - Perpetual bad boy and womaniser, Cocky and self assured, Irish, Went to Hogwarts till fifth year when he transferred to Kallaix with the help of Severus Snape.

**Alyson Devereaux** - Sweet and entirely loveable,sister-like with Ax.Has an uncanny ability to understand others emotions and even sense them due to her coughshutupprincesscough

**Tegan Hall** - Rebellious to the end. Easy going if in good mood. Warewolf. Famous older brother Mark.

**Tanya Bussa** - Only recently freinds with the rest, and has had a massive crush on Ax since he came to the school in fifth year. Close to Saul, shy, evasive but once she gets past that she's cute.

**Adam Blake and Saul Thorpe-Townsend** - The boy's, Adam is Sporty and Saul The perpetual Joker.

**Jacque Quaine and Jeffery Campbell** - The Steelwell prefects.

* * *

Thankyou's - To theeI do declare the OoK's (Order of Kalliax's)

_Alaranth-88_ - Thankyou so much for reviewing. Sorry bout' the OC's, does the list help?

_Ava Munroe_ - Thankyou so much for reviewing! Ax went to Hogwarts from 1-4th year, and then to Kallaix, whereas Tegan, Alyson and Justine were only there for fourth. Sorry if it was confusing!

_Unga Bunga!!!_ - (lol, looks down at the bambi eyes and giggles) Here's your chappie!


	4. Love Lost

** Merry Christmas to all! **

This chapter is for Ava Monroe, who's reveiws consistantly rock!!!

* * *

Chapter Four**: _Love Lost_**

There was a teachers' meeting in Dumbledore's office, with Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy there as special guests, given the subject matter of the meeting.

"Each event will be covered by local and international media," Harry informed everyone, "Draco and I have made backstage passes for all non-students to tell who is competing in what event, as well as who is allowed into certain areas. As you know Hagrid has doubled security efforts around the school for the duration of the hunt, and he's doing a bang up job."

Hagrid blushed deeply, "Well, it wasn't too hard to get them trolls from the Ministry, and the magic wards only took a couple o' weeks to get working."

"Thank you, Hagrid," the mutter went around the meeting.

"Thanks also to Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall and Madam Hooch for organising the extra Quidditch pitch and for helping with updating the hunt trail. And also those who volunteered to be on hand for the set-up of the Quest trail," Draco added. Again, thanks went around the meeting quietly.

"Thanks also to Professors Sinistra and Lupin for setting up the balls and organising musical items from each school; remember to brush up your duds, this is going to be on TV," Harry smirked. "And thanks again to Madam Hooch for calling up Oliver Wood to being the second Quidditch referee."

"The Hunt and Dressage judges will be Professor Albus Dumbledore of Hogwarts, Mrs. Greengrass, British Hunt Champion and Madam Maxine of Beauxbatons. Professor Severus Snape of Hogwarts will be the judge of the duelling. The Mystery Tours will be announced when the time gets closer and all the schools have gotten back to us," Draco continued.

"After vast negotiation with the Acromantulas, we have secured a treaty to use their land for the duration of the hunt and their leader will draw his legions back into the furthest part. We do have to waning however that we are not, under any circumstance to pass into their territory."

"As we know the Centaurs have been posing a problem for the past two years, and we must take them into account."

"So, in three days the schools will all be here and enrolling, the teachers have to sponsor one of the schools each to make sure that they have everything that they need," Harry said. "We've made a draft list, with the different schools and who we thought might work …"

He put a piece of paper on Dumbledore's desk with a neat list, clearly written by Hermione. "The only school _not_ on there is this Kallaix Academy place, because they don't seem to be coming."

At that moment there was a rap on the window, and an owl was seen outside. Severus recognised it immediately, after all, he had been the one who'd bought it. "Nahnook!" Severus muttered, and hurried over to the window. Everyone looked at one another. _Snape_ was receiving mail? He had friends?

Severus opened with window and took the letter from the owl, which remained where it was, awaiting an answer, as its mistress had directed. Snape took the little cream envelope with a green dragon seal and opened it. His eyes scanned down the green writing, then he folded the letter, tucked it into a pocket and turned to the meeting. "Kallaix will be attending," he said, sitting down again.

"So, who's with who?" Sprout muttered obviosly as perplexed by the sudden mail as the others.

_Hogwarts – hosts._

_Villefort – Sinistra_

_Thundreds – Firenze_

_Beauxbatons – Hagrid_

_Grendwell – Charlie_

_Nhi-Lon Fohs – Flitwick_

_Durmstrang – Snape_

_Kallaix Academy – McGonagall._

"Fine with me," Sinistra remarked, and agreement followed by each of the rest of the teachers, until it came to Snape.

"Durmstrang?" he demanded coolly, "No, I think not. I will be seeing to the Kallaix Academy students."

"But, Severus, everyone else is in agreement with the list," Dumbledore said, "Which was very well put together. I think that Minerva would work better with the Kallaix students."

"No, they tend to be quite a… spirited group," Severus remarked, "I have met them before. Besides, my niece is one of them. I believe Draco and Harry have met her before – Justine."

"I suppose I can swap, since it's for family," McGonagall remarked.

"Good. _Now_ I am in agreement with the list. If that was all this meeting was about, I should send the official information to Kallaix," Snape stood up and left before anyone could say anything else.

* * *

**Back at Kallaix Academy, Australia. (**same day, but due to time differences it's the morning 

"Everyone packed?" Justine asked as her friends gathered around her in the library. The smell of old books filled the air, and Adam was looking around as if he had never seen the place before.

"So many books," he muttered to Saul.

"I know dude, and the scary thing is, I've been here before," Saul replied.

"Everyone?" Justine repeated.

"What? Oh, yeah, packed," Saul said, and held up a tiny bag. "Plenty of chocolate," he said patting it.

"You only packed chocolate?" Alyson demanded.

"No, I've got a change of clothes somewhere …" Saul replied.

"You'll be needing a tux and two suits, _and_ your formal uniform, _and_ your Quidditch gear, _and_ pyjamas, stupid head," Justine told him.

"Tux? Suit? What be these things?" Saul demanded, and then turned serious, "You really expect _me_ to wear a tux?"

"No, I expect you turn up naked at the balls we have to attend."

"Hang on, you said ball_s_, as in _plural_ of ball?" Saul demanded.

"That's what Uncle Sevie said in his letter, I dunno why we need all that crap …" Justine replied. "I haven't actually looked through the booklet to see anything else … I thought I'd wait until we got here."

It was the day after they'd left Tanya's house in a hurry, and tomorrow at midday British time they would be at Hogwarts. Things were being a little rushed at present.

"OK, so we're here, let's open it already," Tegan said impatiently.

Justine took an envelope from her bag and opened it, inside was one _load_ of forms, and a small booklet. "Uncle Sevie says that the forms are what we need to sign and shit before we enrol for the Hunt, and to make things easier, he sent them over for me."

"OK, so what's in the booklet?" Jacque reached over and took the booklet, flicking quickly through it. "Oh shit," she muttered.

Everyone looked at her. "I don't know if you guys didn't realise it or something, but this 'United Youth Conference' is a little more than we thought it was. Not only do we have the Hunt, which we'll nail anyway, but there is a knockout round of Quidditch, something called the Quest for the Best, a whole heap of conference crap where we basically get to have bitch fights with the Brits, plus a whole bunch of balls and a duelling comp and the Mystery Tours."

"What the hell? We have to decide who to enter into everything in three hours?" Justine demanded. "Ax, Kris and I already arranged to meet Severus then!"

"Shit," Saul remarked eloquently.

Adam looked up, "Well, at least we know who's on my Quidditch team."

Kris leapt to his feet, "Go the Knights!" he yelled. The school Quidditch team was the Kallaix Knights.

"So helpful. That means we need duelling…"

"You and me and baby all the way," Ax remarked to Justine.

"…The Quest…"

"I'm in!" Kris and Ax yelled at once.

"…The Conference speaker guys …"

"I'm up for a bitch fight with anyone – it's that time of month," Tegan muttered.

"And these Mystery Tours."

"Actually, the Mystery Tours are _random_, the Duelling requires three members, as does the Quest. There are quite a few people we'll be needing for the Conference," Jacque remarked, still reading through the pamphlet.

"Oh … who else can wield a sword?" Ax wondered.

"I've used one before," Tanya volunteered.

"You and me, after the meeting, I'll make sure you're up for it," Ax said decisively.

Tegan nodded.

"Justine and Kris, you'll need to be on the debating team. The rest of the people we'll have to chose as the arguments are announced, I'm afraid."

"Well then it's easier than we thought," Jeffery said, "We'll just all of us go and we can handle anything they throw at us."

"I'm in for the Quest," Tegan added, "It sounds fun."

"Wow, all organised. So, we just have to fill out this form, and then you'll need to go and pack the _rest_ of the stuff you need, and get it all aboard the Starstream," Justine said.

Form filling only took them about half an hour, and then they were separating again. Ax and Tanya headed for the duelling courts with Justine deciding she'd better go along … just in case Ax tried something.

Tanya came out of the training room, and Ax's jaw nearly hit the floor. She was wearing a tight black asymmetrical crop top and fairly loose red pants. Man she looked hot. Then he saw the sword in her hands.

It was a thin, light metal sabre with a wicked curve and sharp looking edge. She carried it easily in her hands, her body perfectly balanced. This wasn't someone who'd _used_ a sword before; this was someone who practiced quite regularly with one. Justine was cackling on the sidelines. Ax turned to look at her. "What?" he demanded.

"The look on your face," Justine gasped, "Priceless … you haven't paid _any_ attention to her before, have you?"

Ax glared at Justine, then turned back to Tanya. "Let's see how good you are then," he said, bringing his sword up.

Tanya just smiled, and then quick as a fox she made the first move. Although surprised by her speed Ax neatly blocked the blow with one swing then with a second fluid motion he disarmed her. He gently placed the tip of his sword at her throat.

"I win." He said, his eyes laughing at her.

"Here, let me fight," Justine said, "I'm not a sword mage so it might actually be a fair fight."

"It was fair," Ax protested as he lowered his sword. Ax was born with unnatural skill with a sword, and as he grew and his powers developed he realised he could actually channel his magic through his sword, meaning he could use it like a wand or a weapon.

Justine gave an inelegant snort as she walked past him handing Tanya back her sword. Since she was already dressed for a fight in white loose silk pants and black singlet, all she did was pick her sword from the rack. It was a beautiful piece of work, with a long slender blade and wrought silver inlaid into the hilt. When she held it, it seemed so natural on her, just a deadly extension of her arm, the emeralds in the hilt glinting and flashing in the sunlight.

Tanya was trying not to laugh at Ax as Justine pushed him to the sidelines. His protest was that that it was a fair fight and as the winner he was entitled to his prize, of course the prize was of his own choosing.

"Ax. Shut up, you're not getting any prizes," Justine said with exasperation. Ax pouted and Tanya was hard put to not burst out laughing.

"Are you ready?" Justine asked Tanya. Tanya nodded.

Justine stood opposite of Tanya. She raised her sword and Tanya raised hers.

"Get ready, get set," Ax said, "GO!"

Tanya made the first move again this time. She sent an exploratory thrust at Justine who easily blocked it and countered with a thrust of her own, which was turned away by Tanya. She quickly swung again forcing Tanya into the defensive.

After a few more blocked moves Tanya managed to send a chopping swing at Justine who blocked it just in time to stop it slicing her midsection. Tanya now had her chance to go into the offensive, striking at her again and again, looking for an opening in Justine's defences.

Justine blocked each move with grace, leaving no opening for Tanya to use. With a clash that left sparks they were locked hilt to hilt. A dangerous position for Tanya because Justine now used her height to slowly force Tanya down. Then much to Justine's surprise, Tanya slipped to the side and out of the hilt lock ducking around behind her.

Justine managed to turn and block a well aimed swing, following through in the direction of her block Justine brought her sword swinging around ready to stop it before it sliced through Tanya's throat.

Much to her surprise again Tanya ducked sliding her sword downwards and brought the flat side of the blade up to bang the funny bone on Justine's sword arm.

"Ow, cheating," Justine said. Tanya just grinned and brought her sword swinging to disarm her.

This time it was Tanya who was surprised as Justine switched the sword to her other hand and blocked the blow, then with a quick fluid motion she brought the tip of the blade to Tanya neck. Tanya grinned, "Yield," she said.

"I'm thinking we need her on the Duelling team," Justine remarked to Ax.

"She couldn't beat me," he pointed out.

"Let's face it, who can? You're a sword mage honey."

"This is true."

"We have this event in the bag … and the actual hunt too," Justine decided. "Welcome to the team, love," she added to Tanya, who smiled.

"We should win the Quidditch too, and I don't know what this Quest thing is, but me and Kris'll bag it easy," Ax added.

"Let's face it, we are the best, and completely unbeatable," Justine agreed.

"Don't you think you guys are a being a _little_ overconfident?" Tanya asked.

"Sweetie, what part of 'bag – in the' don't you understand?" Ax enquired.

"Whatever," Tanya sighed.

"Not answering question."

"Not trying to answer question, as question stupid," Tanya told him.

It was Ax's turn to say, "Whatever."

Justine sighed, "Break up the flirting people."

"I wasn't flirting!" Tanya said immediately.

"I was," Ax said happily.

Justine tossed her sword absently at the rack. Tanya was about to say that perhaps she should take better care of it, when it suddenly slowed down and settled lightly on the rack, perfectly positioned. "Wow, neat charm. Can you teach me?" She asked Justine.

"What charm?" Justine asked, and then froze momentarily. "Oh … _that_ charm … um, it came with the sword," Justine said, and left quickly.

Tanya glanced at Ax, but he just shrugged and jogged after Justine.

"Why doesn't anyone ever explain things to me?" she wondered out loud, "Take that bloody photo shoot when we met Mark. If someone had _told_ me he was a famous guy in a _public_ place, I _never_ would have gone near him! 'Oh, we're just going to go and see a new movie with Tegan's older brother, wear something pretty,' 'oh, didn't we mention that he's the most popular teenage actor in the world? Whoops, sorry! We didn't realise you didn't know that we're in the newspapers every five minutes.'"

She put her sword on the rack – like a _normal_ witch would – and stalked off to find somewhere to sit by herself. '_What's wrong_?' a soft voice enquired in her mind, and with a slight whoosh, one of the castle's two miniature dragons landed beside her.

"No one _ever_ tells me what's going on," Tanya sighed to her first friend, Aiden the dragon. Most people might prefer to seek human company when trying to deal with something major, but Tanya had found Aiden first. They had been firm friends, despite the species gap since her second week in Kallaix, when she'd been hiding from some boys who were teasing her about her dress sense … or noticeable lack thereof.

'_Some things aren't ready to be explained when we ask for them,_' Aiden pointed out. '_But while you're waiting for someone to explain something to you, could you scratch me please? I can't reach, and it's driving me _insane'

"Well, we couldn't have a sane little maniac black dragon flying around the school, could we," Tanya smiled, sitting down and allowing Aiden to clamber into her lap and settle himself comfortably for a good scratching.

"Tanya!" Ax had returned, "Come on, we have to pack the boat, remember?" he noticed that she had Aiden in her lap. "He needs scratching again?" he asked. Over time, everyone had become accustomed to the two small dragons that inhabited the castle, and approached random students demanding scratches. It was an ancient excuse in the school for those who came late to class to say, "One of the dragons needed scratching", and was usually accepted by the teachers, better yet. But since Tanya and Tegan had arrived in the school, the two dragons came mostly to them, Aiden attaching himself to Tanya, and his mate, Rhiannon, a tiny bronze thing, following Tegan around like a puppy.

"She has to go now," Ax addressed the dragon, "We have to pack the boat so we can go beat some British ass."

"Oh, don't give me any choice in the matter at all," Tanya muttered.

'_But who is going to scratch me_?' Aiden demanded, looking imploringly at the male Peterson prefect.

"I promise I'll give you a good scratch later," Ax offered.

"Oh, and when will _you_ find time that I won't?" Tanya demanded. "Look for Jenna, she'll give you a scratch, you know that."

'_Oh fine,_' Aiden picked himself up and flapped off.

"Here," Ax offered to help Tanya up, but she sprang nimbly to her feet.

"Gymnastics does wonders," she informed him, "To start with, it means we females no longer need males to help us up."

"You are the most difficult woman in the world!" he cried, and flounced off.

"I think you're forgetting Justine," Tanya muttered.

"At least she's _affectionate_, if a little spirited," Ax said, spinning around and fixing her with a glare. For a second, Tanya was almost scared, wondering if she'd gone too far and actually pissed the sword mage off.

"I can be affectionate – just not with guys who are only trying to get me into bed with them," she flared, her temper getting the better of her. "You never noticed me before! I go to a hairdresser and suddenly I'm bedworthy? I used to like you Ax – now I realise you are _so full of shit_ it's a wonder you can't smell it!"

"How do you know that?" Ax demanded, "How can you say that you know me? Have you ever spent any time with me at all?"

"I loved you from the moment that you walked into this school with Justine and the rest of them, and now I just couldn't care less! You had your chance Ax, and you wasted it, chasing every pair of pretty legs. I started all this changing for you, to try and make you notice me – but now I realise I was so much happier being invisible. And I'm over you Ax, for good. Stay away from me, please."

There were tears in Tanya's eyes as she turned away and dashed off as fast as she could.

Ax just stood and stared after her, mouth gaping. It was Justine all over again … only worse. He hadn't actually _loved_ Justine, she was just … beautiful to him at the time, now he loved her differently – she was his sister… Wait, did he just think that he _loved_ Tanya? That wasn't possible!

"So, you found her," Justine walked over to him, obviously having come looking for Tanya herself.

Ax paled. "How much did you see?" he demanded.

"I'd say … just about all of it," Justine said, smiling dangerously.

"I didn't _really_ treat her that bad did I?" he asked.

"Ax, for two years of Prefect meetings she _adored_ you. Every time you said _anything_, even that _crap_ about all chicks should wear hot pants, she _agreed_ with you!"

Ax looked as if he still didn't get it.

"OK, look at it this way – the moment she met you, she signed up for sword classes. Last year, if you had beaten her, it would have been the happiest moment of her life," Justine said, trying to get her point across. "Five minutes ago she was repulsed by the thought of touching you … are you seeing my point _yet_? Have I answered your question?"

"Too well …" Ax muttered, realising what he had done.

"Making it up to her isn't going to be easy, and you needn't think I'm going to help you. I'm not going to see her hurt by you again. I might love you, but that doesn't mean I don't see your faults." She turned and walked away, leaving Ax feeling more than a little bewildered.

"Justine!" he called after her. "Can I ask Tanya if she wants to come with us to meet Severus?"

Justine turned, "Why?"

"Because … um … because once I thought I heard her say … uh, something to, oh, who was it? Someone … about not liking boats?"

"If you can tell me what she actually said, then yes," Justine was interested, this had to be the first time she'd heard Ax being at all considerate of someone except her and Alyson.

"Oh crap!" Ax said. "She said … she said that … that being on boats made her, um, anxious?"

"Who did she say it to?" Justine asked.

"You said…"

"Whom did she say it to?"

"Um … you?" he hoped it was right.

"Good, now you just have to find her and convince her to listen to you," Justine smiled.

"Any ideas?"

"Try Saul."

"_Saul_?"

"Saul."

"OK … thanks," Ax dashed off, and Justine smiled slightly after him. She wondered how long it would take him to admit that he could actually _love_ someone.

He searched through the castle. "God! How hard can it be to find the one person in the castle who loves attention almost as much as I do?" Ax wondered aloud.

"Saul?" one of the younger students asked.

"Yeah," Ax replied, "Have you seen him?"

"Saw him and Tanya heading outside. She looked pretty upset," the student replied, and Ax bolted for the castle entrance.

He pushed the doors open and nearly fell face first onto the grass as _something_ hit him from above. He threw himself sideways as Aiden dove at him again. "Hey! Buddy! Watch out!"

'_You made Tanya leak! Her eyes were wet!_' the little dragon shrieked in his mind, a few sparks flying from his mouth. '_You leave Tanya alone!_'

"I'm trying to _apologise!_" Ax cried.

Aiden looked at him. '_If you make Tanya leak water again I'll set fire to your floaty-scales_,' he warned, and zipped off somewhere.

"Why is no one being at all helpful?" Ax wondered, and walked for the Quidditch pitch, figuring that it would be deserted by the main body of students at this time, and that was where Saul and Tanya had most likely gone.

Saul and Tanya … who would have thought? Saul being nice to someone? Not just mucking around like normal … this was odd.

The moment he walked into the Quidditch pitch he spotted them. They were in the top box, the highest point in the whole stadium. He looked at the huge amount of steps he would have to climb to reach them, then sighed and raced forward.

When he reached the top box, he realised quickly that they hadn't seen him coming _at all_. Tanya was curled up in Saul's lap, sobbing as if the world was about to end. "There, there love, it's alright," Saul was saying to her. "Ax just doesn't think of other people. _Everyone_ knows that Ax has never thought of anyone other than himself – and perhaps Justine and Alyson – he's a self-centred little bastard."

Ax froze. Was this true? How could _anyone_ not like him? He was funny, and he was charming, and he was nice, and he was lovable and he … was using the word 'he' far too much for comfort right now. Could Saul actually be telling the truth?

"Look, I'm really sorry that I advised you to see that damn hair-dresser," Saul added, "It seems that maybe you were better off with him paying no attention to you at all. At least it was better than realising he's fallen in love with you too late."

Tanya didn't speak, she just cried and cried and cried. Ax felt absolutely awful. Justine was right. Saul was right. And worst of all, Tanya was right too. He was a self-centred bastard and he'd never even realised it. But how could he change? Did he even want to? Was she worth it?

He'd have to wait and find out. But right now, he had to talk to Tanya, to try and make up for before.

"Hi, can I talk to you Tanya?" Ax said, and was grateful when Saul looked up and smiled and nodded, before leaving the room.

Tanya shot him a murderous glance and started to sniffle and turn away, Ax could see the desperate look on her face to try and stop crying.

"Tanya, why are you so upset?" He tested the waters…

She turned so fast and with a look so mean that Ax recoiled. "I am _upset_ because you're conceited enough to follow me!" she yelled.

Ax saw red. "I'm conceited, you're the bloody one who has this self-righteous spiel going on because I've supposedly done you wrong! All I've ever done or ever been is me! I'm sorry if you fell into thinking I could be a better person, but what you _see_ is what you _get!_" He was glaring at Tanya so hard that when she cringed and sat as far back from him as she could he realised his Sword Magai powers had activated by his anger. He was now glowing a faint purple.

He softened and forced himself to calm down. He knelt before her and took her hand "Tanya, I don't know what I can say to you except I'm sorry, and kind of grateful that you thought I could be those things."

She sniffed. "Tell me that I'm no different from Justine and the others, that I can be one of the girls who you don't just see as sex objects."

Ax looked down at the girl, she was so forlorn that he just had to answer, "Friends." He held out his hand.

"And I can have respect? And you'll not try and get in my pants?" Tanya said glaring at Ax.

"Hey," he mock punched her chin, "Not even Justine get's that kind of guarantee, but I can try to think more of you as a person than an object. Oh! And I remember that you once told me that you hated travelling, so I asked Justine and your going to Floo over with us!"

Tanya smiled at Ax and leant over to kiss him on the cheek. "I think there is something good inside of you Ax, you just don't want to show it." Tanya got up and left the room.

Ax was left with heavy thoughts.

* * *

The students of Kallaix academy stood on the shore of the lake to farewell the six students aboard. The Dragons were present, the McEwan dragon in the lake, preparing for the magic needed by singing her beautiful whale song. Steelwell, who was overhead like a spectre, roared, and Wentworth was purring nearby. Petersen was with the students. 

The song suddenly intensified and the water around the boat began to bubble more and more rapidly. Suddenly the water roared to life and sped up around the boat, imploding back around the boat to form a bubble. The students go their last look at the _Starstream, _the gleaming white cabin cruiser, as it sank beneath the waves, and the song died away.

* * *

(Princess sneaks over and whispers - YAY - next chapter we go to Hogwarts, but wait, there's a twist! )

Well, this is WolfMoon, stealing the keyboard from Princess for this chapters set of thank you's. Thought I should do them at least once in awhile (although Princess absolutely loves answering your reviews, so I probably won't be a killjoy and do it myself all that often), and the elusive Lupine Shadows will get around to answering some reviews sometime, but that may take awhile, she isn't given to swift action with things like this, but anyway, here we go:

Alaranth-88 – OK, basically Justine went to Kallaix until third year. In her fourth year, she transferred to Hogwarts for a year. She stayed a couple of months into fifth year as well. At Hogwarts she met Ax, and at the start of fifth year she was driven away and went back to Kallaix, but Ax came with her because they'd become good friends.

That Idiot – Totally appreciate your feelings on camphor's, my mum is a gardener and is trying to get rid of all the ones at our place, but at the same time, you can't just get rid of them all. There are too many, and if you got rid of them all at once, the landscape would be totally bare until the new trees could grow (we live on a slope, if we got rid of all the camphor's, there would be no root network left, and the slope would just collapse). Besides, given the era in which Kallaix was founded, camphor's would have been what they planted at the time, and they would have kept some. (Also, Princess like's camphor's, because they are reasonably pretty trees, after all).

Ava Monroe – Kallaix is in Australia, and we have an entirely different set up year wise. For us, school starts in February, and our summer holidays go over Christmas (so we are on them at the moment). April is our first set of holidays, and nothing much happens around them. Our holidays that we study through are in September, when you guys are pretty much just starting for the year.

goDDarknes – Great to see you here at this story also, and I'm happy that you are enjoying it, and getting the characters. Kris is crazy, that's what he does –laughs- and Justine is cool isn't she? Don't worry, Ax will change (to an extent) in time … a fair bit of time … but oh well. Hope you enjoyed this chapter as well.


	5. First Impressions

**Happy New Year **

This chapter is for goDDarknes, who is a legend out of her time!

* * *

Chapter Five: **_First Impressions_**

Leon Necrose looked over the serene lake of Hogwarts. It was the day of the delegates arriving and he was assigned to Durmstrang, who were to be staying as usual in their ship, which was now docked at the new pier that had been built for the conference. The archery students of Hogwarts were practicing in front of the lake, and Leon was watching them.

"Draw! Take Aim! RELEASE!!!"

Madam Hooch was getting overexcited about showing off her students' skills to the already arrived students from all the schools.

Leon walked behind one of the students who was aiming at a set of targets 40 metres away from her.

"Elbows up," he said, "that way you will have a better pull."

The girl blushed and thanked him. As he walked away he heard the girls yabbering about his adorable accent. Could he help it if he was Australian?

"AGAIN! Draw! Take aim! RELEASE!!!"

As Leon watched the arrows fall into their marks, a weird humming sensation washed over the group for a second, sort of like a small electric shock then it faded away again.

"What was that??" a girl asked staring out into the lake, the direction from which the sensation had come.

"I don't know," Leon responded, "But I'm gunna find out."

He walked to the water's edge, followed by the archery class, the group staring intently down into the depths of the water. Was that a sound? Leon could hear something that sounded remotely like _singing._ His first thought was that it must be the merpeople. But as the song grew it became more and more like… whale song?

Then about fifty metres from the shore Leon saw a little group of bubbles rise above the waters surface. He arched one dark eyebrow and placed his hand on the hilt of his sword under his robes. Since gaining his position in the DA as Sword master he carried it with him everywhere "Could everyone please move back up the bank," he said calmly.

Suddenly there was another barrage of bubbles.

"Now." He said more firmly.

It seemed almost as if a localised section of the lake was boiling, the water billowing an inundation of steam, sort of simmering like when you add cold and warm water. From the centre of this rose what seemed to be one massive bubble, easily the size of the Durmstrang ship, which just seemed to grow and grow.

The song intensified, and there came a great whooshing of water as it suddenly began to whoosh around and around, causing a whirlpool of sorts to form around the gleaming sphere. Leon could swear something was moving in the tidal waters. Something big.

Students aboard the Durmstrang ship were all standing at the rail of their ship, and many had walked down onto the wharf, and were pointing towards the bubble.

_They can see something_! Leon thought, sprinting towards the wharf.

Just as he reached the other students the whirlpool just seemed to stop, and the bubble exploded outward, causing massive waves, which ran high under the wharf, and rocked the Durmstrang ship.

Upon the now serene waters of the Hogwarts lake sailed a beautiful white Cabin Cruiser. Leon guessed her to be 60 foot, with polished silvery trimmings. Her name was written in glittery silver writing down the side of the side of the ship, 'S_tarstream_'. She sailed in next to the docks and a shiny rope tied itself around the docking pegs. On deck three girls were sunbaking on cushy deck chairs, and Leon could see other movement further up the boat.

"Hail! Are you with Durmstrang??"

The middle sunbaker, who was a pretty girl with long blonde hair, turned to the girl next to her, who had short black hair and said something. Because they were so far away, he missed what she said, but all three girls broke out laughing. The third girl had shortish hair, but Leon couldn't tell what colour it was, as she turned her head he saw all different hues.

"Willkommen zu Hogwarts," he tried.

Suddenly a tall, sandy haired guy jumped down onto the deck. "Do we look bloody German mate? I mean really."

Leon thought he picked up an accent… but no… was the Australian school even coming? He decided to test the waters, so to speak. "G'day, I'm Leon, welcome to Hogwarts"

"Knock me down with a feather! G'day, I'm Saul." Then Saul turned to his ship, "Mates, he's a bloody Aussie!"

"True blue, through and through."

"We're the Aussie contingent, fresh from Kallaix Academy, Could you point me towards the Entrance Hall, I've only got like ten minutes to sign the school in."

Leon smiled at the other boy. He had a sort of little boyish quality. "So you're the Head Boy?"

"Oh god no! Do you really think they would trust me with that sort of responsibility." Saul laughed out loud. "Oi everyone, Leon's gunna show us how to find the Entrance Hall, toss me my robes will you!"

Five others quickly joined Saul on the wharf, and introduced themselves as Alyson, who was the blonde, Tegan, the girl with the multi-hued hair and Jacque, the black haired girl. There were also two boys; Adam had blonde tipped hair and Jeffery was tall with dark, almost black eyes.

"So who are your school's captains?" Leon asked, "You really do need them to sign in."

"Oh, I suspect you'll find Kris and Justine somewhere up there," Tegan said pointing towards the castle, "But don't worry, we can be very convincing when we want to be," with a grin, "trust us."

Leon shrugged and led the group towards the entrance hall. They were all wearing coloured jumpers, and he could understand their need for warmth, it was drastically colder in Britain. Jacque and Jeffery were wearing purple V-necked jumpers under their creamy coloured robes, which confused Leon, was purple the colour of their Hufflepuff? Adam and Alyson were obviously in Slytherin, because they were in green jumpers, Tegan and Saul in Ravenclaw blue. Where were the Gryffindors?

Just outside the doors the group all flicked the hoods to their robes up and thanked Leon for his help.

"It's cool," he said "Call me if you need anything else." He waved to the group and walked away.

* * *

The front doors of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry opened to admit the group of six. They walked confidently towards the sign-in desk. They were all wearing cream robes, so no face could be made out, but word had gotten round that this was the elusive group from Australia.

Pansy Parkinson sat behind the desk she had been seemingly chained to all morning and plastered on a fake smile, beside her she saw Daphne do the same. Why had the stupid DA given the schools four whole hours in which to arrive? Why not just assign times?

As the group approached Pansy reminded herself how much she hated Australians. They always ruined things for her. Especially that freak, Alyson Deveréaux who had gone here for a year, during fourth year to be exact.

Pansy suppressed a shudder remembering how she had witnessed the freak going behind a bush in on the far side of the lake and turned into… a _unicorn._ It wasn't natural. She was an Animagus. Pansy had done what any other self-respecting person would do in her situation, she had grabbed the bigpgest stick she could find and proceeded to beat the unicorn furiously with it.

Then that other _bitch_ had turned up and turned the tables on her, _attacked_ her. Pansy still winced remembering the bruises she had endured. She was just trying to protect herself from a freak. The other girl had said she was being brutally evil and deserved a taste of her own medicine. By the time teachers had found them, Alyson was human again and the bitch was trying to stop her bleeding, not even her blood looked natural, Pansy could remember, sort of a _pewter_ red colour.

Pansy had been sent to the hospital wing, along with the others. The bitch had gotten a splinter while she was beating her, and Alyson was apparently quite hurt. Faker. She had been stuck there all night wearing cream to get rid of the bruising and fix the cuts. The freak was across from her, but was there the next night too.

Pansy's parents had been called in, and it was only on the part of her begging and swearing for it to never happen again and that she'd tell no one ever that she had not been kicked out of Hogwarts. So not fair.

The group approached the table, lead by a girl in Slytherin green.

When she reached the table she threw back her hood and silver eyes twinkled down at Pansy, she let out an involuntary gasp. Those eyes had haunted her for the last three years. Alyson Deveréaux had returned to Hogwarts, "Pansy," she then said condescendingly, "Fancy meeting _you _around here!"

Pansy was mortified, "What are you doing here!"

Alyson shook her head in mock insult, "Pansy, do I get no 'welcome back' or 'we missed you'? I'm here to sign Kallaix Academy in for the United Youth Conference." Alyson was enjoying this. Three years ago Justine had noticed Alyson missing from class and looked for her, thank god, and turned the tables on Pansy.

Alyson could tell by the look on Pansy's face she hadn't forgotten it, nor had she forgotten Justine in the hospital wing, being treated first, because she had gotten a splinter beating up Pansy, and it was 'more efficient' to deal with her first.

"I'm sorry, registration is closed," Pansy said, nodding to the redhead to her left, "You're too late."

"Bull," Alyson quipped back, "We have five minutes."

Daphne grinned maliciously, "I can't believe you're the head girl, and it takes the _Head Girl, _and _Boy_ at least ten minutes to fill in these forms, so you're too late." Alyson was fast losing her temper. A second Kallaix student, this time a boy, stepped forward and took off his hood. He was tall and serious,Pansy couldn't believe her eyes. He placed his hand on Alyson's shoulder. The other two girls now de-hooded and faced Pansy.

Pansy nearly fell off her chair. The stupid Australians had brought the werewolf. Tegan scowled at Pansy's reaction. "Remember to keep your mouth shut," She maliciously grinned and added, "If you tell my secrets I'll get you expelled."

Pansy stood up and yelled, "You freaks! You're too late, now get out!"

Alyson spoke over her: "Don't be such a prat, we have five minutes!"

Daphne called out across the room to two others, whom Alyson recognised as Malcolm Braddock of Slytherin and Seamus Finnegan of Gryffindor. Why were they together? "What's the matter here?" Seamus asked, "Is there a problem?"

"Yes," Tegan spoke up, "These stupid cows won't let us register."

Pansy's eyes bulged clear out of her head, "Because it takes time to fill out the bloody forms, and you HAVE NONE!"

A deathly quiet filled out the Entrance Hall after Pansy's outburst, and a calm voice responded, "Then it's a good thing I filled out the forms at home."

Alyson pivoted to look up the stairs, then herself and the other Aussies grinned and moved back near the doors.

Everyone turned to look up the staircase, to where Justine Snape stood at the head of the stairs. She was wearing the Kallaix uniform robes over a short white pleated skirt and emerald green tight sweater.

Beside her was one of the most handsome boys. He was tall with near black hair and twinkling eyes. He was smiling patronizingly, but had a mischievous air about him. Next to him was a girl with golden red hair, very pretty with big hazel eyes. On the other side of Justine stood her uncle, Severus Snape, and Alexander Kidson, still remembered at Hogwarts by most of the girls, looking superior.

Justine continued as she elegantly descended the stars beside Kris, Ax and Tanya following. "As the heads of Kallaix Academy, here are the _filled out _forms, given to you _in person_ by myself and Kristopher," She looked up at the clock, "With two whole minutes to spare."

Pansy began to reply when Snape's voice cut through from the stairs, "Don't… make the mistake of second-guessing those forms. I checked them myself, ergo, Kallaix is registered."

Justine turned to Pansy. "Take my forms and choke on them Pansy, seems I've … _beaten _you again." And with that she turned on her heel and left the Entrance Hall, the Aussies following in her wake. She left behind a defeated Pansy, an annoyed Daphne and confused students.

High on the landing above Draco and Harry stood, quite quietly. Harry turned to Draco expecting some scathing remark, but saw something else… sadness?

"Draco, I know you two have some serious history, do you want to talk about it?" Harry asked, placing a hand on Draco's arm.

"No," Draco said in a strained voice, "but… thanks. Just leave me alone. If you need me I'm in the Dining room setting up for tonight."

* * *

The school's cabin cruiser was docked on its own little wharf by the time the Kallaix crew got back to the ship, but they noted that both wharves were joined at the end, to create sort of a rectangle.

Justine climbed up the stairs at the rear of the boat, after walking across a rope lined gangplank, and straight away stripped off her outer robes. The ship had a warming charm on the entire space, meaning it was a warm Aussie summer's day. Everyone followed suit once they were on board.

Justine flopped onto a cushy deck chair, one of six towards the stern. The entire back end of the deck was a small pool, and the deck chairs sat facing this. Behind the deck chairs was the wheelhouse. Stairs lined this room on either side, going up onto a small lounging area where the girls planned to sun bake daily. Through the wheelhouse was the stairs leading down into the galley.

The entire under-section was magically enlarged in true Kallaix style, and was large enough for 7 bedrooms, the dining room/galley, a small library, lounge and two bathrooms.

The two bedrooms at the bow (front) of the ship under the wheelhouse were Kris and Justine's, and to the immediate left of Justine's was the library, then Jacque and Jeffery's, and on the other side of the girls bathroom, Tanya.

To the right of Kris was Ax and Adam, the boys bathroom, then Saul (whom everyone flatly refused to even consider sharing with) then Tegan and Ally.

The back end of the ship opened out and down a few steps was a beautiful lounge, with a balcony, squishy lounges and leaded windows in diamond patterns. Saul pointed out that the pool must be charmed, because by right it should occupy the space where the lounge was, every one else pointed out that this ship belonged to a _magic _school.

Justine loved this ship. All the décor reminded her strongly of the school train with tons of glass and white surfaces, and silver trim and accessories. It was very clean and Tegan seemed afraid to touch anything.

Justine turned her face up to the sun. It wasn't as bright here as it was at home, but the charms made it feel just as warm. Contemplating a swim, she walked down through the wheelhouse, waving to Jacque and Jeffery who were up on the roof. On the stairs she passed Ax, Kris and Saul, all in boardies.

"Heading to the pool?" Justine asked Kris as he gave her a quick hug, "I was thinking of a quick swim myself."

"Yeah, were also going to check out how cold the lake _really _is." Kris seemed to think this a _good _idea for some reason.

Justine just shook her head, "I'll join you in a second, but I'm _not _getting in the damn lake, I'll just leave that to the idiots like you."

Down in the galley at the table Alyson, Tegan and Adam were finishing up a game of Magic Monopoly started during the trip over. Everything was magical, so your money disappeared and appeared at will, and if you bought a property, you had to look after the damn thing. And words like 'bankrupt' and 'GO TO JAIL' flashed in the air, and if you did indeed go to jail, bars appeared around you till you 'paid your debt to society'.

Justine chucked a left at the bottom of the stairs and headed into her room, pulling her bikini out of her trunk as she went.

Up on deck, Tanya was being thrown unceremoniously into the pool. By Kris and Ax of course.

Shrieking in fury, and laughing at the same time Tanya surfaced, and glared up the two boys. "You would be dead by now but …" she started stripping off her jumper.

"Good lord, she's going to strip for us! Go girl go!" Ax yelled, looking positively delighted by the idea.

"I'm wearing swimmers you dick," Tanya informed him, pulling off her shirt, and revealing that she was indeed wearing one-piece, backless halter neck swimsuit in a metallic violet colour with a plunging neckline.

"Well, you look good enough in that anyway," Ax flirted, trying to embarrass her. It worked.

Tanya blushed, and glared up at Ax. "Stop the flirting!" Tanya told Ax sternly.

"You might as well tell the Dalai Lama to stop praying," Saul muttered, "Or trees to stop growing, or the sun to stop shining."

While Saul lifted a hand in a dramatic style to prove his point, and at that moment he toppled sideways into the pool, and resurfaced with one eyebrow raised. Kris stood where Saul had moments before, brushing his hands together.

"You were asking for it."

"Oh really?" Saul asked, "Here I am thinking I'm asking to stand beside the pool, not fall on my ass into it!"

Everyone broke out laughing, and Tanya slipped off her skirt under the water and added it to her pile of sopping clothes.

When Justine arrived on deck in her white diamante studded bikini, the boys predictably broke out in wolf whistles, which she gracefully accepted, with a shake of her head. She was wearing a sheer white sarong with sparkly edging, which she draped over a chair and placed her sunnies on top.

Saul looked over at her and said in a stage whisper, "Dear god, if thou art in heaven, make thy swimsuit see-through-ith when wet."

"You butthead," Justine said as he gracefully pushed him back down into the water then stood to gracefully dive into the water, popping up to add, "It's brand new, and made of special fabric, it's not going see through."

For fifteen minutes the group splashed around like idiots before the topic of swimming in the lake was raised again.

"_I'm _all for it." Kris said, "We can just swim to the shore over there and walk down the wharf to get back to the boat."

"I'm in!" Saul added, "I know a good warming charm if it's too cold."

"Might as well, got nothing else to do," Ax put in blandly, " The feast isn't until seven."

And with a mighty splash the guys jumped over the side of the ship.

"Holy Shit!"

"Damn, how do the Brits swim in this?" Justine swam over to the edge of the pool, which looked down over where the boys were swimming around in the water.

"Cold?" Justine said, "You do realise there is not an ice cube's chance in hell of me getting in that water don't you?"

"Oh come on Justine, it's really nice once you're in!" Kris called back.

"This is Britain, not Australia guys, I'm not going near that water." Justine added gleefully.

"I'm with her, if you can con her into the water, I'll come too." Tanya added.

Justine shrugged and jumped over the edge.

"Bitch."

"OH MY LORD" Justine squealed as she resurfaced, "IT'S SO BLOODY… nice… in this water." She finished lamely looking up at Tanya.

Tanya glared over the edge, "You're not fooling me guys." Tanya prepared to jump over the edge.

"I'll give you a hug." Kris added as if it were an incentive to jump faster.

"Dudes, is it getting warmer in here, or is there something Ax isn't telling us?" Saul asked concernedly.

"Hey, butthead, it wasn't me but yeah it is." Ax responded pushing Saul's head under.

The McEwan dragon's head surfaced to the left of Saul and she made her cute little cooing noises, letting him know it was she who was warming said water, by her magic.

"Dragon magic's good enough for me," Tanya screamed as she jumped ship.

As she resurfaced next to Saul she noticed he was wearing the boardies he had been wearing that day at her place on the beach, but was wearing them with a belt. He followed her line of vision and added impishly; "One can never be too safe, especially with them around." He pointed his chin in the direction of the others. "If they give you any trouble hon, just holler."

"Oh, because I can't take care of myself at all, " Tanya added, "but thanks." she added to not hurt his feelings. Tanya had decided over the last few months hanging out with these guys that Saul was like the brother figure of the group.

"You're welcome, of course," Saul smirked.

"Quick, before the dragon spell wears off, head for the bloody shore!" screamed Kris, with everyone following him towards the lake shoreline. Whenever the group hit a 'cold patch' in the water they broke out yelling and cursing delightedly. Kris took an early lead, his athletic physique giving him an edge, and Justine and Saul, who were backstroking languidly, followed him.

Tanya and Ax broke out in splash wars every five minutes, ending with Tanya sinking, and Ax popping her back up to the surface. "You need to learn how to tread water," Ax said as she was resurfaced for the seventh time, this time rather close to the shore, although he still couldn't touch the bottom.

"I live on the beach, we just jump with the waves, or use a bloody board," Tanya quipped back, grabbing his arm so she didn't sink. "Waves make life so much easier."

At that moment a great ruckus broke out as Kris reached Tegan, who was standing at the edge holding towels.

"I am the greatest," he yelled throwing his arms in the air.

"No sweetheart, you just like to think you are, as I have to remind you all too frequently." Justine flashed him a huge grin as she reached a level where she could touch the bottom.

"WENCH!" Kris yelled, plunging back into the water after Justine, "I SHALL PROVE MY POWER!"

Justine screamed, "YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE POWER!" and threw herself back into the deep water, "AX save me, save-a me!"

Ax ran forward in front of Justine, "Fair maiden, I shall defend thy honour!" He said in a mock hero voice.

"Get out of mine path," Kris returned similarly, "The maiden whom thou would'st defend so readily be no innocent at all."

"Oh damn it! Didn't we get enough Shakespeare back in Primary School?" Tanya rolled her eyes.

"I am withest thee fair Tanya, are we not overeth this shiteth?" Saul responded, grabbing Tanya round the waist and swinging her onto his shoulders.

"Oh, I'm tall, I'M TALL!" Tanya was delirious with joy.

"You could be taller on me," Ax said blandly.

"OI, you're meant to be defending my honour or something," Justine said from behind Ax as Kris lunged for her.

"Noble steed." Tanya reverently stage whispered to Saul, "We must fight for the lady's honour."

Amongst all this commotion no one was paying any attention to Tegan, who had stealthily stripped down to her black one piece, and no one saw it coming when she threw herself at Kris from behind, dunking him completely under the water.

She backed off in a hurry, and when he resurfaced he looked like the proverbial thundercloud. "Right," he said calmly, "you all asked for it." And just as coolly launched himself at anyone within jumping distance.

Tanya screamed, "Saul move, giddup!" but too late, as Saul was pushed under the water. Tanya made the split second decision to use him as leverage to dive off in the opposite direction, but Ax used his reflexes just as well to catch her mid-flight.

"Got you now," He winked at her, "Kris do you want her?" he mused as he handed her over.

* * *

Far above the screaming group Draco stood at a window in the great hall watching. He had to admit Justine was looking beautiful. She had let her once shoulder-length hair grow down her back and she had gotten taller. He had laughed at her indignation about her petite height back when… Draco was disgusted as he caught himself smiling.

Pushing away from the windowsill he stomped back to the table he was setting to accommodate the students from two other schools. For the ten days of the hunt, tables were to be set out in the common rooms for the Hogwarts students for meals. "Daphne, what schools are at this table?" he asked the redhead, referring to the Hufflepuff table.

"Um…" she whipped out a clipboard, "Kallaix and Beauxbatons."

"Damn it." Draco said, and then he heard the scream. It was different from the other fun ones. It was terrified. Tearing for the window he looked down to see Justine being carried from the water by Kris, her foot covered in blood.

"OH MY GOD SHE'S DYING" Saul yelled dramatically.

"What in icy hell have you done to yourself sweetheart?" Kris asked in a gentle tone. The pain in Justine's foot had reached boiling point.

"I think I may have cut my foot." She mildly responded gesturing to the blood.

"Well duh," Tanya responded, "The blood dripping from your foot and pained expression didn't give it away at _all_."

"Excuse me for pointing out the obvious. Kris didn't seem to have noticed," Justine replied. "Now can someone do something about my foot before I bleed to death or something?"

"I know it!" Saul cried, "I know how to do this! Yay! First aid courses _do_ come in useful after all … I should probably go and apologise to Mr. Bathie for saying his course was the most useless one I'd heard of, huh?" Saul waved his wand in the air and muttered something. Instantly the hurt disappeared and the blood cleared up.

"It's good thing there aren't any Great Whites in Britain," Tegan remarked.

"Guys! There's only _five and a half_ _hours_ until the feasty-thing and I haven't even _started_ unpacking or getting ready, or planning what I need to wear or _anything_!" Justine cried, glancing at Kris's watch.

"Oh no! Party princess doesn't have time to get ready!" Saul cried.

"I thought we had to wear formal uniform. Can't take that long to primp," Tegan muttered. Justine scowled at Tegan, then gestured to herself and looked questioningly at the other to see if she understood yet. "Oh yes … it's you. Silly me."

"Exactly, little miss 'I'm just going to roll out of bed and put on what I was wearing yesterday'," Justine muttered rebelliously.

* * *

"OK everyone, I'm sick of this place for meetings," Harry said, looking around the Room of Requirement. "This is a _training_ place … Besides, we have to be all together in case something comes up and we can't get to one another … anyone got an idea on where to go?"

"I propose that we steal the Kallaix Academy tower – have you _seen_ that place? It's totally gorgeous! When I get a house, I'm so hiring Professor Snape as decorator!" Daphne said.

"What is it? Black on black, with a bit of black for the accessories?" Harry demanded, rolling his eyes.

"No. It's like a nineteen-twenties paradise, with cream walls and walnut panelling, and palm trees and chiffon _everywhere_, it is so beautiful. All of the furniture is done in tasteful soft cream leather, and the bedrooms are to _die _for. Especially the room set out for their bitchy head girl."

Draco paled, Harry noticed, although he didn't think anyone else did.

"Oi, mate leave the Aussies alone, right?" Leon piped up. "They were real decent to me earlier, and that boat! Whew."

"It's not my fault she's a righteous cow." Daphne mutinously threw in.

"And it's so good to have someone who understands proper Aussieland talk, I was like 'mate' and they were all like '_mate'_ and I was like '**mate**' and they were like 'maaaate'it was great!"

"What? Are you stoned?" Malcolm raised his dark eyebrows at Leon.

"Drop it." Harry said firmly, "The last thing the Council should be doing right now is bickering pettily with one another. Everyone go to their rooms and pack and meet me at the northern end of the third floor corridor at three, ok?"

When everyone had left the room, except for Draco and Harry, Harry turned and asked in what he _hoped _was a consoling voice, "Draco, are you ok? You know I'm here if you need me."

Draco looked up at his new brother. "I know." They might have only become brothers last summer, but in heart and mind they had been brothers for a little under a year ago. Harry would _always_ be there for him ... but he wasn't ready to talk about ... _her_ ... yet.

"OK, this room is _mine_," Draco said, looking around the room prepared for the Head Girl of Kallaix.

"Draco, this is ... her room," Harry decided that not mentioning Justine's name would be a good thing right now.

"I know. It's only fair that I get something back from the bitch."

"OK, then I get the Head Boy's room," Daphne said.

_"No_," Harry interrupted, "Shotgun!"

"_Shotgun_?"

"Good lord! It's one of the very institutions that make up the teenage existence. In Australia, if one wants to be in the front of the car for instance 'SHOTGUN' and Bob's your uncle. It's the only way to have, um... how do you put it... first choice."

"Leon, I thought we discussed you _corrupting_ Hogwarts students with your language." Draco looked scornfully at the Australian, who parried with "I am ashamed" in a fake French accent.

Harry grinned, something that had become so rare that when it happened his entire face lit up, "Shotgun." he said with fervour.

Daphne glared at the group and flounced out, declaring, "Fine! I didn't want it anyway."

Harry laughed, "Sure you didn't."

This, of course lit up the mood of the entire group, who all began to become acclimatised for the stay. When everyone had finally claimed their rooms and thoroughly explored the entire wing, it was approaching five, and everyone separated to take care of all the final preparations.

* * *

Justine looked down at her outfit, hoping to god that the skirt she was wearing wasn't _too_ short; she had poor Sevie's heart to think of after all, he was getting on in years... and it was her longest one. She had teamed it with her favourite white blouse, a black tight v-neck sweater and her cream school robes. Her shoes were inappropriate: the black stilettos' ribbons wound up and around her ankles. They were gonna give Sevie a coronary.

She didn't even hear him come up on deck, but she felt a hand on her shoulder and Kris's voice whisper in her ear, "Stop fretting, you look fully hot."

"Ahh, that's my problem!" Justine turned to run back on deck and steal someone else's skirt when Ax grabbed her arm out of nowhere and pulled her into a hug.

"And how, exactly, is this a problem?" he whispered seductively in her ear.

"Ax, back off," Justine heard Tegan mutter from somewhere, "You know she has issues with this place, and her uncle's gonna friggin flip when he sees what she's wearing."

Justine squealed, and again tried to run for the stairs. "Oh fine, you can borrow mine ... I'm not gonna need it, locked up in the dungeons tearing anything remotely tearable to bits."

"No thanks – that thing _still_ has a grass stain from last time you had to save some 'poor defenceless little animal' " Justine said.

"Hey, at least I mended the rips!" Tegan scowled.

"You know where Uncle Sevie's apartment is, he'll make you comfortable," Justine told her cousin, resting a hand comfortingly on her shoulder.

"Yeah. See you tomorrow morning, and if I miss anything, I expect full explanations later …"

Tanya looked around as she walked into the Great Hall. She felt slightly out of place as she walked between Justine and Alyson. Both of them were wearing skirts that only barely covered the essentials - and this was Justine's _longest_ skirt. She wasn't even wearing a _skirt_, but rather pants.

"Which table is ours?" Saul asked.

Tanya glanced over at the other boy. Trust Saul to manage to make the _formal_ uniform look as if he had slept it in and had only just woke up and was stumbling in straight from bed. And still manage to look the type of guy that most teenage girls would fall in love with ... if he hadn't been walking between Ax and Kris. Talk about being caught between a rock and a hard place…

Jacque checked a notation on her palmpilot and then replied, "The one that's usually Hufflepuff," she replied.

"What?" Ax yelped. "No! That's just _degrading_!"

"Why?" Tanya asked.

"It's the _idiots_ house!" Ax said, between a series of outraged noises. "We are the most selective wizarding school in the whole damn _world_, and they give us the idiot house's table!"

"Is he just overreacting, or is it really that bad?" Tanya asked worriedly.

"No ... it's worse," Justine replied. "This was _Draco's_ doing."

"Bastard," Ax agreed, "Must have been him."

"Actually, I heard Daphne talking to one of her little groupies - it was her," Jacque replied.

"That's like, freaky - do you have eyes and ears everywhere?" Saul asked.

"Honey, if a mosquito sneezed in Antarctica, I would know."

"Do they even _have_ mosquitoes in Antarctica? Damn, and that was gonna be my escape next summer ..." Saul muttered.

"Idiot," Jeffery said, "You would seriously go to _Antarctica_ to escape mosquitos? Get away from the bites only to _freeze to death_?"

"Who are you talking to?" Jacque asked her boyfriend of nearly four years.

"Oh, well, _obviously_ ... I wasn't thinking."

"Leave him alone, he just got out of bed," Adam said.

"I did not!" Saul cried.

"Look at how you're dressed," Adam said.

"I was having an intimate moment with ... Bobby _two_," Saul said loftily.

"You were asleep," Adam agreed calmly.

"There's _two_ now?" Tanya asked.

"Yeah, I noticed the black spray paint on one of them," Ax remarked. "It said Boby 2 and looked like a four year old had written it."

"I was pressed for time," Saul said.

"You only had time for one B?" Justine demanded.

"Like I said, pressed," Saul replied, then glanced at Tanya, "You know, when you have a 2, it's supposed to be like, bigger or better or some shit? Well, the original is still the best, but Boby 2 is the most comfortable deck chair on the cruiser."

"Trust you to get it before anyone else could," Jeffery remarked.

"Well, I couldn't lose him!" Saul said, "We got this real nice thing going, me and Boby 2."

"Now, Justine, when we walk into the Hall, just look straight ahead and don't glance at the Slytherin table - Jacque tells me that's were ... _he_ ... will be," Ax said to Justine. "Or, just look at me, I know it's hard not to."

"Or you could look lovingly into my eyes and make the guy jealous as hell."

"It's a plan," Justine replied, then looked at Jacque, "How many cameras do you have so far?"

"Only seventeen," Jacque replied.

"Only? We've been here for what? Three hours?" Justine demanded.

"Seven, actually," Jacque replied.

"Oh, well, I was only four hours out! How much can you get done in four hours?" Justine replied.

"Couple of cameras in trees for the hunt, few in the Quidditch stadium, couple in the brickwork - there's one there," she pointed, "and onein Malfoy's pocket, and a tracking device as one of Daphne's hair ornaments."

"What about the Gryffindors?"

"That was in the first three hours."

"Oh."

"Now, are we ready to go into the Great Hall?" Adam asked as they stopped momentarily in front of the Great Hall.

"Yes," Justine spoke for everyone, since she had the most reason to avoid the place.

Ax nodded and pushed the door open.

Talk within the room stopped momentarily as everyone looked to see who had arrived now.

"Oh look, it's the Slut Brigade," Pansy's voice called out sneeringly.

Justine _tried _to force herself to look ahead, but, as usual, her temper got the better of her, and she spun around, green eyes flashing, "Oh look, it's the girl who _wishes_ she was a slut, but can't get laid. Are you _still_ chasing after Draco?"

At that moment, she spotted the man in question and quickly turned back to face away from the table.

The Kallaix students made to head after their Head Girl, but Tanya had seen someone who looked as though he _might_ be familiar. She paused, and slipped back a few paces from the rest of the group, trying to see a little better.

"…Leon…" someone murmured, though she didn't catch the rest of the sentence. But that one word was enough.

"Wait a sec," she muttered to Adam, though she wasn't sure he had heard her, and stepped closer to the Slytherin table, where the Hogwarts Hunt entry students were sitting.

"Leon, why is that girl from Kallaix walking towards you and looking pissed off? I thought it was only Draco who had to watch out for death stares amongst us guys," Harry demanded.

Leon looked at Harry, then leaned over and whispered, "Does she have red hair?" with a slightly pained expression on his face.

"Um, yeah," Harry replied, not sure why this was happening – wasn't _Leon_ the one who knew the Aussies? Or was this someone he had offended earlier?

"Oh shit," Leon muttered, and went to stand up.

He turned, ready to run, and came face to … well, chest to face with a small, red haired, blue eyed _pissed off_ young woman. "Leon," she said softly, eyes flashing dangerously.

"Tan-_oof_," Leon replied, as the girl gave him a swift and surprisingly powerful uppercut to the stomach.

Suddenly, Tanya was pulled a few steps back from him, and a tall, also pissed off looking Australian male took her place, with a sword at Leon's throat. _Really oh shit,_ Leon thought.

Justine stepped in and caught Tanya's arm, pulling her back. Ax was going to get … nasty. Last time she'd seen him like this, people had gotten hurt.

"Justine, let me go," Tanya said, trying to escape.

"Adam? Saul?" Justine asked, and the two boys hurried forward to take custody of Tanya.

"Justine!" Tanya yelled, Leon had kicked at Ax's shin, driving the surprised sword mage back a step. Leon had twisted free, and suddenly had his own sword in hand, resting at Ax's … delicate area, at the same moment Ax had his sword back at Leon's throat.

"You're good," Ax allowed. "Japan? Or China?"

"Japan," Leon replied. "And so are you… But are you good enough?" he swung back from the block, and then came to meet Ax's counter swing.

Suddenly, Ax's sword began to glow a light purple, and his eyes turned to pure white.

"Oh shit," said Leon, for the third time that night, "I've heard about your type …"

"Oh shit just about covers it," Ax agreed calmly, and swung powerfully. Leon skipped backwards. Harry and Draco were yelling, somewhere in the background, telling people to move back, away from the fighters. Teachers were yelling too, wanting to know what was going on.

"Justine!" Tanya yelled again.

"What? Didn't the guy hurt you?" Justine demanded, "You know Ax has a thing for you! He won't see you get hurt."

"I wasn't, I was just telling Leon off for not telling me he was a wizard!" Tanya yelled.

"You _know _him?"

"He's my next door neighbour and one of my best friends, apart from you guys."

"Oh _shit_," Justine bolted, throwing herself into the crowd. Somehow, they were all getting pushed out of her way, though Tanya didn't see her touch them, or her wand.

Leon was cornered, backed up against a wall with a very pissed off sword mage swinging a bloody glowing sword right in front of him.

Suddenly, one of the Aussie girls came to his rescue – not Tanya, why wasn't she helping him? – This was the Head Girl of Kallaix, threw herself between him and Ax just as Ax was about to swing for the kill, a tiny dagger appearing from somewhere, and catching the glowing sword just before it would have cleaved _her_ in two.

"Oh god," Justine muttered. "So glad you have reflexes."

"Why didn't you let me hurt him?" Ax demanded, a slight pout on his face.

"Leon, are you alright!" Tanya bounded out of the crowd, apparently having managed to escape from Adam and Saul. Ax was surprised and bewildered as she hurried over to his opponent.

"Your friends are scary," Leon said, dropping his sword in relief.

"Ax, meet Leon, Tanya's next door neighbour and good friend," Justine said hurriedly. In a second, Ax's sword was sheathed, and he'd slipped around the Head Girl to stand before Leon.

"You mean you weren't trying to hurt Tanya?" he demanded, looking at the Australian Hogwarts boy.

"No," Leon replied, "You mean you weren't trying to kill me?"

"No," Ax agreed. "Hi, I'm Ax!" he added, with a bright smile, holding out a hand for Leon to shake. Every female in the crowd looked like they were about to swoon … in fact, a couple of them did.

"Leon," the other replied.

"God Ax! I'm not some 'maiden in distress' or something!" Tanya snarled, "I don't need you to coming running to my rescue." Then she turned to Leon, "You know, if you'd just _told_ me you were a wizard, none of this would have happened."

"Oh, so this is all _my_ fault now?" Leon demanded. "It was your crazy friend who started this!"

"Mate, the gal is _never_ on the wrong side of the argument. Especially if she's from Australia. It's always the bloke's fault," Kris said, wandering over. "That's just how it works."

"Of course," Leon replied.

"Oh!" Saul squealed, "It's the _mate_! Leon! Dude! You OK … gettin' on the wrong side of our mate Ax … not a good place to be."

"I think I noticed," Leon muttered.

"Is there a problem?" Draco appeared before them.

Justine didn't even glance at him, but casually walked off, as if she were now bored with the whole operation. "There wasn't," Ax muttered, and followed, with rest of the Australians following him.

"Leon, this is your fault, somehow," Draco said, stalking off to the Slytherin table again.

"That's what Tanya said," Leon remarked.

"She's a female, it's always the guy's fault," Ginny said, as she and Hermione walked into the group. "What's happened now?"

"You OK Justine?" Adam asked, as they took their seats at the Hufflepuff table.

"I'm _fine,_" Justine replied, unconvincingly, but no one got a chance to press her about it, as Dumbledore rose to his feet.

"Well, Welcome everyone to Hogwarts. The Unicorn Hunt is one of the unbroken traditions of the Magic schools that we are very proud this year to be hosting. Ten years ago we were lead to victory by our Quidditch Captain Charlie Weasley, and this year I am proud to say he will be with us again, but in a different capacity, he is now a teacher, and the sponsor teacher of Grendwell," at this the whole group politely clapped for the South Africans, who were all smiling and seemed to be a generally nice group.

Dumbledore then went on to introduce each school in turn, with the Spaniards, Villefort lead by Prof. Sinistra and Beauxbatons sponsored by 'Special Ministry Member' Rubeus Hagrid. The Chinese Nhi-lon Fohs were with Flitwick and Durmstrang with McGonagall. Egypt's Thundreds were to be sponsored by Trelawney.

When Dumbledore finally reached Kallaix, "And our final school, Kallaix Academy…" The Aussies went absolutely ballistic. Kris jumped on his chair, making the usual spectacle of himself, and Saul followed, so as not to outdone.

"WHO'S YOUR DADDY!" Kris yelled, in true form, followed immediately by Saul's, "I'M YOUR DADDY!" capering around like an idiot.

When the group finally calmed down, everyone in the Hall having had broken out laughing, it was announced that they were with Snape as sponsor. Bedlam ensued.

"Yeah, go Sevie, GO SEVIE!" The girls all broke out in an impromptu cheerleading like dance.

Every Hogwarts student's mouth dropped open at this, everyone looked at Snape and nearly choked from shock. 'Is he _blushing?_' The whisper went around the hall, magnifying when he let out an accidental laugh, something that _no one_ had ever witnessed before.

"WOO HOO! Go Severus!" Broke out Justine, shocking every one with a smile so bright it could have outdone a sun. Every guy in the hall swooned. She could _smile_.

"After that … delightful … display of School and Community Spirit from the Australians, I must hand you over to Kingsley Shacklebolt, Britains newly appointed Minister of Magic, to tell you all the Rules and Regulations of the Hunt."

"Well, how can I pass up a show like that?" Shacklebolt asked, which started the Aussies off again, with Saul screaming it was impossible, and Tanya and Alyson attempting to pull him down, Justine, Kris and Adam all hiding their faces, and everyone else laughing to hard to do anything.

"Well, since I have been informed that it is, in fact, impossible, I guess I'll just have to do my best," Kingsley said, struggling not to laugh.

"Too right!" Saul piped up.

"That's it!" Justine yelled, whipping out her wand, "_Silencio!_" Saul's mouth kept moving, but no sound immerged. He glared at Justine, and mouthed angrily at her.

"Yes, I know you had loads of other things to say, but let the nice man talk now," Justine said, in an 'I'm talking to a five year old' voice.

"Thank you," Kingsley said, sounding relieved.

"He gets a little excited," Kris said, smiling slightly, "You should have seen what he did when Dad got Minister of Magic in Aussieland."

"You don't want to," Jeffery interrupted. "I only appreciate his humour when he keeps his clothes _on_."

Everyone looked worriedly at Saul, who had started mouthing at Justine again.

"No, you can't do that again, or I'll put a body bind on you as well," Justine warned him. "You can go now," she added to Kingsley.

"OK, Rules and Regulations for this years United Youth Conference are as follows. One, all people competing in events, or entering an area of competition, must be wearing passes, to prove that you are allowed to be there. This is for the protection of the competitors, as we do not want the press infiltrating back stage areas and annoying them.

"Two, every event has a set amount of points allocated as prizes, the school which has accumulated the most points at the end will hold the trophy for the next ten years, although each event is scored differently, and you will hear more about that on the day…"

Saul mimed falling to sleep, with a wide yawn, lying his head on the table. If he had been able to make sound, you would have heard some very loud snores. Kris kicked him, but got no reaction, so just shrugged and left him to it. Saul would ask later.

"Five, any school caught cheating will be immediately fined, either in points on exclusion from events … or from the remainder of the tournament, depending on the circumstances. Each school is given a complete list of times and schedules – you are all responsible for following them…"

Seven rules later and it was Kris's turn to yawn and lay his head down on the table. Every other person in the hall was paying careful attention to the Minister, sitting up straight, eyes focused, determined to hear all of the rules.

On the last rule, number twenty, only Alyson and Justine were still listening. Two of the Australians had disappeared altogether, and the rest were sleeping… or looked like they were.

"Right, that's all I have to say, I hope I wasn't too boring," Kingsley remarked.

"You weren't," Kris called out, now waking up, "time difference is starting to get at us!"

"Sleep," murmured Alyson longingly, silver eyes now half closed.

"Sleep good," Adam agreed, half opening one eye.

"Well, I have only two words left for you then," Dumbledore said happily, looking _far_ too cheerful for Australian taste. "Eat up!"

With that, every single Aussie jumped and sat up, blinking away sleep. "Bog in!" Adam roared as the food appeared on the table.

"Severus! Come join us!" Justine called out.

To the eternal astonishment of the Hogwarts students (who never got away with even _calling_ him Severus), the most feared teacher in the school rose and strode down to the Hufflepuff table, as Justine shooed Kris from the seat next to her, pulling it out with a bright smile at Severus.

"I'm not sure that's allow…" McGonagall started, then stopped with a sigh, seeing that for one thing Snape wasn't going to listen to her, and for another, he was _smiling_ again. Two times in one night, when they could normally see this sight once a decade. There was something about this girl … she was making him happy – and the happiness of her colleagues was more important than the rules, in Minerva's eyes … especially in Severus Snape's case. He'd lost so much, and his constant depression was infectious.

One of the Hogwarts students slipped away from the Slytherin table and out of the hall, returning a moment later with Madame Pomfrey. "What appears to be the problem?" the nurse enquired.

"It's Snape," one of the students replied, "Look, he's _enjoying_ himself. Something _has_ to be wrong."

Said student was lucky that Snape was too busy laughing – _properly_ laughing – at something that Justine had said to notice.

Madam Pomfrey shook her head and walked out again.

* * *

Justine had gone down to the Kallaix boat to fetch one of her infernal photo albums, to the disgust of her fellow students. She had an annoying habit of catching everything on film, and keeping every single newspaper clipping … thankfully she hadn't brought the one from Greg's last election … and the _incident_ with Saul.

She was running up the front steps, photo album clutched to her chest. She pushed open the castle doors and skipping towards the hall, head down, laughing silently at some of the shots she had tucked away in here.

* * *

Draco _had_ to get out of here. First the scene with the swords, then the stupid Australian oafs making all the noise, _then_ Snape was smiling, his world was turning upside down.

He made for the Entrance Hall to go up to the Tower, but as he was about to pass through the door he literally ran into some idiot who was going too fast for him to avoid, and in an effort to not be knocked to the ground he couldn't catch them, watching hopelessly as someone was thrown to the ground, her head slamming into the stone floor.

He regained his balance and turned around to face the imbecile, but when he looked into her terrified green eyes he could only stare.

Justine stared up at him, eyes brimming with tears she couldn't wipe away because she seemed to have lost the ability to use her right arm. It took her a moment to realise it was bleeding, having had been grazed on the floor. Her head was pounding. Forcing her left hand to her hair, it came away with blood there too.

Everything went blank.

Kris reacted with instincts not thoughts. Running for Justine who had just passed out he heard Ax and Saul right behind him yelling for people to get the hell out of their way.

Ax got there first, drawing his sword _again_, he swung straight at Draco, who jumped back and scowled. Balancing himself on the balls of his feet, he drawled at Draco, "My, my how this does seem familiar. You, a bastard, abusing Justine, who _yet again_ has done nothing to deserve your bullshit."

Draco opened his mouth to retort, but Ax saw something on his jaw line. "Hey, did I manage to _mar_ your pretty face, bastard?" Ax demanded, the tip of his (glowing) sword tracing a tiny scar across Draco's jaw line, remembering the day he'd given it to him, in rather similar circumstances in the Gryffindor tower. "Pity it doesn't show up better … but if you don't get out of my way, it might."

He remained where he was, between Justine and Draco, as Kris lifted the Head Girl into his arms, and followed Draco with a sword tip as the Slytherin stepped out of the way.

"Come on Ax – don't waste your time on bastards like him," Jeffery spat.

"I wouldn't degrade my sword _twice_," Ax replied, striding down the steps with him, leaving the rest of the gathering, particularly the other schools, wondering what in the world was going on here.

* * *

He was hacking into the charmed dummy as if tomorrow might never come. Draco was glad he couldn't actually blunt his sword on this or chop it to pieces. He needed to relax.

When he was a boy, his father would lock him in the duelling room for hours on end, then come in unexpectedly and attack, saying that Draco had to be prepared and ready to predict his opponents next move. He hadn't been prepared for this. It had been like a blow to the stomach the other day just to hear Severus Snape say her name, and then just now when she looked up at him with those eyes. Damn, even now, after all she had done to him, he still couldn't look at her without _wanting_ her. Bitch. He hacked into the charmed dummy violently.

"Well, remind me never to break up with you, I appreciate my head." Harry's voice drawled from the other side of the room. Draco turned and saw him leaning on the doorframe.

"_I_ broke up with _Her._" Draco said disdainfully.

"Oh fine, remind me a) never to date you in the first place, quite apart from the fact that you're my brother, and a _male_, it's just a nasty thought, b) piss you off so that you might want to break up with me and c) go anywhere within five miles of you for the rest of my life, should the rest of that somehow happen."

Draco laughed, and sheathed his sword. "I'm glad I've got you for a brother, Harry," he said quietly, "After all, I might have ended up with Weasley, or worse yet, Longbottom."

Harry laughed, "Oh, get over that already."

"But I don't want to."

* * *

Yay its another thankyou session with the incomperably crazy little aussie princess, MEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Thankyou so much to goDDarknes, you rock with your reveiws, and now that christmas is over we will be updating alot faster... The OC'edness will balance out a lot more as they begin to integrate, and it is Tegan who is the ware wolf, Alyson is an Animagus, a Unicorn in fact. Ahhhh, my bracelet, nice to know someone remembered it...

Alaranth-88 - Thanks for reviewing! We're in northern NSW. Hey at least with another Aussie you'll understand the schoolyear timing!!!

SEE THE BUTTON DOWN THERE? REVIEW!!! (please?)


	6. Never Judge a Book

_This Chapter is Dedicated to our Beta, the incomperable Evil Percussionist - We would suck without you to fix our over excited bad spelling and poor grammar - We love you hun._

* * *

Chapter Six: _**Never Judge aBook**_...

_She was in her favorite black jumper, sitting on the fallen tree branch in the moonlight. Justine was just beginning her fifth year at Hogwarts and it was a beautiful clear night. Draco would be here soon, and she couldn't wait to see him. She smiled to herself and started humming the tune she had just heard as she walked past the choir room._

_Hearing footsteps coming up behind her, Justine was delighted as she recognized the even, proud footfall of her boyfriend._

_"You bitch." A voice whispered from behind her._

_Justine turned around to see Draco standing there, she had half expected someone else his tone was so inhuman. "Pardon?" She said, not understanding, was he toying with her? "Draco what took you so long? I almost thought you weren't coming," she asked a little fearfully. He had this look in his eyes, pure malice. _

_It scared her._

_"There was a present waiting for me in my room, a Pensieve. It's quite interesting what other people see, how could you do it?"_

"_Draco I don't understand what you're talking about, I haven't done anything wrong."_

_Draco suddenly flew into a rage, "You BITCH! Pensieves don't fucking LIE!" _

_Justine had been so scared she had fallen backwards off the log, clambering back onto her feet. "Draco, I don't bloody understand but next time you call me a bitch I'm walking away. What the hell are you talking about?!"_

_"Don't act all innocent, I know all about you and your filthy behaviour. To think I wasted my time on you." He raised his arm and slapped her._

_Justine had stood there just staring, "Draco..." he slapped her again, and she had run._

_But he had followed her to the Gryffindor tower that night..._

Justine screamed and sat up in her bed. She had been having the nightmare; she had been having nightmares about that night since it happened. Pushing her hair out of her eyes and swinging off the bed, she moved to her dresser to grab a bottle of water.

Her door suddenly swung open to reveal Kris, dressed only in his boxers. "Bunny, you're awake. Don't worry we dealt with Malfoy. Your uncle fixed your head up, and then Alyson and Tegan put you to bed," Kris put an arm around the shaking girl, "Severus didn't look too impressed with Malfoy, but he said that he was in no position to punish Malfoy for running into you. He also put a weak sleeping charm on you, so you would get some sleep."

"Thanks, how did I get down here?" Justine mumbled burying her face into Kris's shoulder.

"I got to act all heroic and carry you, of course Ax wanted to, to make an impression on all the chicks, so I calmly had to point out that he had swished his sword around twice, his image needed no buffering. Oh and yes, myself and Ax did get into a fat bitch fight with Malfoy before you hear it from others."

"You did?"

"Well he was in the way of the door," Kris added by way of explanation, "and being the shit stirring little wench Alexander is, he got into a slandering match with Draco."

"It wasn't much of a match, really, I just got to tell him what I thought of him. Again." Ax was standing in the doorway in long black silk pajama bottoms. He walked over to the bed and yawning dramatically flopped onto it. "C'mon, it's four a.m. We need a little more sleep. I'll stay with Justine and keep the nightmares away."

"I have a better idea. I propose a midnight munchies raid," Justine said with a little of her old spirit back.

"Yeah, I'm up for one, do you want me to go grab some things from the galley?" Kris asked.

"I have a better idea. I think we should go to the castle kitchens and be pampered by the house-elves. I can remember the way to them, and myself and Ax were once told how to open the door." Justine was already looking out the window for a clear path.

"I'm off for warmer couture then, after all, it is freezing off the boat," Ax said, "Meet you up on the deck in three minutes okay?"

Justine smiled to the boys as they left the room, reaching into her bag to grab a floor length black cloak to cover her rose pink satin pants and matching spaghetti strapped top. Dashing up the stairs to the deck she threw the fur-lined hood up over her hair. She smiled to the boys and giggled as they took off dashing over the grounds. Kris had thrown on a black turtleneck and black jeans, and Ax had put on a thick woolen jumper. As they approached the castle they stealthily climbed the stairs and glanced into the entrance hall.

"I wonder if old Filchy is still around," Ax whispered into Justine's ear.

"I don't doubt it. If we get caught does he have any jurisdiction over us?" Justine whispered back conversationally, glancing behind them to make sure the creepy Hogwarts caretaker wasn't in the Entrance hall. As they approached the painting of the fruit bowl, Ax reached out and tickled a pear, which jiggled and turned into a handle.

"Wicked..." Kris said, "Bring on the food!"

As they stealthily entered the kitchens, six or seven house elves presented themselves in a flurry, bringing Kris's every whim and serving Ax like a deity.

Justine turned to walk over to the fire in an effort to warm her feet. "Next time, I'm bringing shoes..." She muttered. As she moved closer to the fire, she unexpectedly tripped over something by the fire that the dim light hadn't allowed her to see.

Something small, warm and smelling entirely of Butterbeer was covered by what looked like a heap of dirty dishtowels. Justine let her curiosity get the better of her as she uncovered a small, dirty, obviously drunk house-elf. "What the hell," Justine muttered, shaking the house-elf in an attempt to wake her up. "Wake up, are you okay?" She asked the half conscious elf.

"Winky is just needing another drink, an' then some sleep," The elf muttered as she looked down the neck of an empty bottle, one of her big brown eyes squinting. "Who is you to be caring, nosy little foreigner..."

"Winky, did you say your name was? Why have you let yourself slip into such a condition?" Justine tried to pick something to say to dissuade the elf from getting another bottle. "What would your master say if he saw you?"

Suddenly without warning the elf began to wail and scream in the middle of the floor, causing two other elves to come over and push her back into the corner, then down into the pile of dishcloths. "I is sorry little miss," one of the elves was apologetic, "Winky was given... _clothes_ a few years back and she isn't recovered, she is a disgrace," he shook his head and walked away.

Justine looked down at the elf as Ax threw an arm around her. "It's horrible when they get clothes. Want some cake Bunny?" he gestured to the cheesecake he and Kris were happily consuming.

"No thanks, I think I'll just have some of those cookies in a sec, I have an idea." Justine walked over to the hiccupping pile of rags. "Winky, go to sleep. Master's orders. And stop drinking. And umm... be happy." Justine hoped this would knock the elf into sobriety, but she just began to snore.

"It was worth a try," said Kris as she joined the table, "Do you want to put some of these cupcakes in your cloak pocket for the trip back? My pockets are full."

* * *

The next morning Colin Creevey edged up to the first of the three massive horses that had just arrived. Why had he been assigned to Kallaix? These horses were at least twice his size! He was avoiding the big black one though; there was something... _dark_ about that one. He moved cautiously towards the pretty white one.

"Hey there girl... I'm Colin, and I promise I won't hurt you." Quick as a flash he fastened a rope around her neck, in an effort to capture her long enough to put on her halter. To his dismay the white horse began to rear and neigh in distress. Colin was so absorbed in trying to calm the beautiful horse he didn't see the massive black stallion racing for him with thunder in his eyes...

* * *

Harry stood in the room of Requirement, hands on hips and wand in one of them, looking challengingly around the room.

"What? _No_ takers? Come on! Someone must want to learn this new curse…"

"It's not that we don't want to learn it Harry," Draco drawled, "It's more that no one is interested in being a sacrifice so the rest of us can see how it's done. _I_ certainly don't have any suicidal tendencies, and I really don't think anyone else here does either. Although I'm sure if he was here, Creevey would be more than happy to let you kill him – I'll never understand your little fans."

"Harry snorted disgustedly. "Fine! Well, I can only demonstrate this on people, so until someone volunteers, none of us are going to be doing anything but standing around. So you might as well just do so!"

Draco shuddered delicately, "No thank you, I've seen what this spell does," he replied.

"Oh come on, it's not that dangerous!"

"But it's you, anything is dangerous if your involved with it," Neville piped up, grinning at Harry. Harry rolled his eyes.

"Honestly, I'm not _that_ good!"

"Stop fishing for compliments," Draco muttered, "You know damn well you're the strongest wizard at Hogwarts – and I'm including Dumbledore in that – even if I don't have to like it."

"You jealous?" Harry teased him.

"_No_," Draco said, but Harry could hear something in his voice so he dropped it. Draco was used to having powers in any given situation, and he hated implying that he was anything less than perfect, so Harry didn't want to rub in that he was stronger with Magai power, or let any one in the room realize how meaningful the statements were.

"Still, until the Hunt is over I'm not moving onto any other spells. You guys _need_ to learn this! And none of you already know it, so I cant ask anyone else to demonstrate at this time. Will someone realize I wont hurt you and come forward please?" Harry demanded again.

For almost half an hour they all stood there chatting and looking at one another, with Harry waiting calmly for someone to volunteer. Finally Draco stood and spoke up, "Hey anyone for a duel?" And leaving behind an annoyed Harry, the group went of for sword dueling sessions with Draco and Leon.

* * *

After a widely yummy breakfast the schools were all sent out on various duties to prepare for that day's events; the Quidditch was starting at noon and the first round of the Conference was that night.

Justine and Tanya were just leaving the Great Hall when Justine heard the roar, "Anubis, shit!" she screamed, running through the Entrance Hall, followed closely by the rest of the Australian girls.

As they all emerged into the front courtyard, Justine chucked a quick left, moving off towards the forest at almost a flat-out run. Tanya noticed that the stable area had been set up on the edge of the forest, and a small crowd had gathered around the unloading area.

"What's going on?" Tanya said to Alyson who was running right next to her. The roars seemed to be getting deeper "What's upset Anubis like this? I've never even seen him angry."

"I'd say some stupid fool didn't recognize them as Llysanyins, Dragon-horses!" Alyson fretted as they followed Justine through the newly parted crowds.

"How does she do that without a wand?" Tanya wondered.

Anubis, the massive, solid looking black stallion was standing over a cowering young boy, one of his massive front hooves resting on the boy's stomach, his head down. A distinctive growl was emanating from the horses chest. Anubis had lowered his massive head, the horn on the end of his nose dangerously close to the boy's throat.

"What the hell do you think you're doing Anubis?" Justine said in an angry and dangerous voice. Anubis's head shot up and he immediately removed his foot as Justine stalked him across the clearing, still looking angry. "You have probably scared the shit out of this poor little boy! I know he's a boy, but for Christ's sake you little shit! What did he do to you hmmm? You had better have a reason."

It was unexpectedly Alyson who spoke up in Anubis's defense, gesturing to her horse Isis, "It looks like the boy tried to put a halter on Isis: the freaks have assigned us a male stable hand, and Anubis was trying to protect her," Alyson said, "The poor boy probably didn't know what a Llysanyin was."

Justine turned back to her horse that had come over and was nuzzling her shoulder with the side of his head. It was quite funny to watch, as Anubis was so big, and almost knocked Justine over several times. "Poor baby, did the nasty boy touch your girls? Tegan, where's Loki?"

Tegan's horse was a pretty chestnut mare with bay patches, mane and tail. She was named after the Norse god of mischief, and _hated_ it when people thought she was a boy for this fact. "She was still in the crate, seems she tripped anyone over who came near her." Tegan emerged with said horse following her.

"Move on people, nothing to see here..." Tanya started to yell. "What is it with us, do we cause a scene in everything we do?"

"No, we got through breakfast with no mishaps, probably cause Saul was on his best behavior I'll admit..." Jacque drawled as she moved off back towards the boat.

"Colin?" Justine said to the boy, "I think I remember you, you're in Gryffindor right?"

The boy clambered to his feet and nodded, "I remember you too," he stammered.

"Colin, come here," Justine said, ignoring Colin's squeak. "Anubis won't hurt you, he just got angry when you tried to put the halter on Isis. Our horses are of a special breed, Colin; they're called Llysanyins, and are draconic by genealogy. Anubis is a beautiful example of a purebred male, and Isis and Loki his females, his herd. If they get hurt or distressed he will lash out with draconic rage. They also hate male humans, unless they have been introduced by someone female that they trust." Anubis, who was enjoying the compliments, was enjoying a good scratch from Tanya.

"The Llysanyins are intelligent Colin, so don't try and order them around. We will have to get a female stable hand. Who gave you this job?"

Colin squeaked, "Daphne," and fled, as Anubis glared at him disdainfully.

"Can we go for a ride?" Alyson asked, "I'm not dealing with sleeping on the boat too well, the unicorn in me is going quite nuts."

"Yeah, let's. They need to get some exercise after being in the crate anyway." Tanya said.

In the end, Justine rode Anubis, Alyson changed into her animal form, Tanya rode Isis and Tegan, after making her swear she was on her best behavior, rode Loki.

* * *

"OK, now that the horses are fine, I'm gonna go find Daphne and … arrange a new stable hand," Justine said, smiling dangerously.

"Why am I getting the feeling that there will be more than just 'arranging' going on?" Tanya asked.

"Quite simply, I know she's going to cause a scene … and she's just almost gotten another student killed, you know what Nubie's like," Justine replied. "And I made _sure_ I told Hogwarts we rode Llysanyins."

"Mind if I come along?" Tegan asked, "I'd like to see the bitch get it from you … yet again."

"I hope Pansy's there," Alyson agreed wistfully. "I might come too, just in case."

"Can I come?" Tanya asked, still not completely understanding the enmity, but wanting to see what would happen anyway – she hadn't gotten a particularly good impression of Hogwarts students (with the exception of Leon, who was Australian anyway), and it would be fun to watch yet another of them get put in place.

They went back to the ship to change into uniform. All were wearing their house color jumper, but Justine and Alyson were wearing pleated white minis, Tegan was wearing white pants and Tanya was wearing a knee-length A-line skirt.

As the group made their way up to the castle, the boys settled themselves in for a 'warm-up' for the Quidditch, which basically meant Adam and Jeffery conjured treadmills to run on beside the pool, while Saul swam laps. Kris and Ax lounged on the deckchairs, drinking Pina-coladas.

"I've noticed," Kris began, "That your argument about our school's uniform being dowdy hence the need for the hot-pants was entirely bullshit." He gestured around to the different uniforms. "Current interpretations of ours are damn close to indecent. We have a lot of scope for imagination."

"Well you can't blame me for trying," Ax returned, "Imagine how hot our chicks would be in hot-pants."

"So what's the deal with you and fair Tanya?" Jeffery asked conversationally.

"There is no deal," shot back Ax, "Seems she was just hot for me, as are all the chicks." He settled down for a nice smug stretch.

"You are so full of yourself, you asshole." came the unanticipated reply from the pool, as Saul launched himself back into his strokes.

Ax felt distinctly uncomfortable, so he poured himself another drink, topping up Kris's as well.

"Should we be getting drunk before the Quidditch game in two hours?" Kris asked him. "We have to play the Beauxbatons team according to the schedule."

"Unfortunately for you, dear Kris, you will indeed be playing your guts out in two hours but I will be cheering, and my philosophy is that the more I drink, the better I'll cheer."

"Here, here!" chink

* * *

She had been told that they would find Daphne in the Dining Hall, helping set the room up for the first round of the conference that was to be held that night. When Justine and the others entered the room she didn't quite know what to make of what she was seeing. Hermione Granger, 'little miss goody two shoes' yelling at Daphne.

"You stuck up cow, house elves are not just here to be your target practice! They deserve a little respect!" Hermione looked as though she was going to cry, standing in front of a cowering house elf that was covered in cuts and bruises, with her arms outstretched.

"Winky is sorry..." The elf mumbled.

Daphne just smirked, "Bugger off Granger, how I treat the elf is none of your business," As if by cue, Millicent Bulstrode and Pansy came and physically pulled Hermione out of the way. Then, while Millicent held Hermione in place, Pansy and Daphne took great pleasure in throwing some particularly nasty hexes at poor Winky.

Tanya looked at Justine. She would never forget the look of pure hatred on Justine's face. As Justine began walking a wine glass on a nearby table smashed. Tegan naturally fell into step to one side of Justine as she stalked towards the girls, ignoring the other DA members who were scattered around the room. Tanya caught Tegan give Justine a look, and Justine nodded.

Quite stealthily, Tegan slipped out her wand, but Justine just raised a hand, and both girls yelled in unison, _"Expelliarmus". _Daphne's wand shot into Justine's hand, and Alyson deftly caught Pansy's as she walked to Tegan's side in front of the angry Hogwarts girls. Tanya fell in beside Justine.

"How dare you treat another living creature so badly? These elves clean, cook and generally look after your sorry ass and you have the unashamed gall to treat one as if she is a simple _amusement _to you?" Justine said venomously as she threw down Daphne's wand, and raising her hands up at her sides, used her Magai powers to lift both Daphne and Pansy from the ground.

Tanya turned to Justine, whose hands had begun to spark and shimmer with power, "This explains a lot..." she thought, "I must have a word with our Justine."

Justine, in the meantime, smashed Pansy and Daphne together mid-air then threw them down to the ground and inquired, "How does it feel to be _experimented _on, you bitch?"

Tegan turned her wand on Millicent. "Let her go, or you'll be pulling cactus spines out of your ass for a month," at Millicent's hesitation she lost her temper and growled, "You don't believe me? TRY ME!"

Hermione pulled free of Millicent and ran for the now cowering Winky as she tried to make herself invisible under a bench. Daphne, always a poor loser, seemed not be able to miss this opportunity when it was placed in front of her and she quite viciously, in a fit of temper kicked Hermione in the side.

From nowhere, or so it would seem, Harry came pelting out of the crowd to kneel beside Hermione, who was gasping for breath. "Daphne, Pansy, get to the DA meeting room, _now._" he said in a tone which intimidated even Tegan, who was now gently picking up the unconscious elf.

"Looks like the poor little thing fainted from a mixture of fear and pain," Tanya said, checking if Winky had a fever.

"I know how she feels," Justine said softly as she took off her jumper to put over the elf. "I tend to faint when I get shocked. Take her back to the ship."

"There's no need," Hermione said, standing up leaning heavily on Harry. "I can take her to the kitchens to be cared for. It was really good of you to do that...thing... to help me." She smiled at Justine and the others, who smiled back.

"No need," Alyson said, turning to follow Tegan and Tanya out of the hall. "This will give me a chance to practice my medic-aid."

Justine was the only one left. "Hermione, I just want to say that... well back in fourth year I always really respected the way you stood up for the house elves. I would have joined, but... well… someone told me it was inappropriate. Winky will be fine, I met her the other night, Kallaix will take care of her. They may be noisy, but my friends have all got hearts of gold." with that she smiled and left the hall.

"I'm sorry Harry, but I still like that girl." Hermione looked up at Harry.

"It seems it's rather hard not to, just don't mention her to Draco." Harry looked down at his girlfriend.

"Harry, she did wandless magic. She's a Magai, like you..."

Harry looked at the closed door considering, "So I saw."

* * *

Justine looked down at the sleeping house-elf. Winky had slept straight through the mending of her cuts and bruises, and even the setting of her brutally broken arm. "Is she going to be okay if we leave her here?" she asked Kris, as she tucked the blanket tighter around the sleeping elf, "What if she wakes up and gets scared, or if she gets drunk and trashes the place…"

Kris smiled gently, something he only ever did in private. Justine was like a kitten, soft and adorable, but the minute someone or something threatened something she cared about, she was like a lioness; she had a temper a mile wide. "We have to go to Quidditch. She'll be fine Bunny, you can write her a letter and I'll charm it so it floats over to her when she wakes up."

Justine turned her sunshine smile on Kris, "Oh! You sweetie, why didn't I think of that? _Accio Stationery!" _Justine's heavy cream paper stationery came though the air and landed on her outstretched hand. Kris grinned and pointed to her wand that was still in her pocket. "Oh, shut up! I forgot."

She settled down on the couch to write:

_Dear Winky,_

_You are safe on this boat; no one can harm you, or find you. My name is Justine and we have met before, although I doubt you will remember. Stay put until my Quidditch game has ended, and we can check on your injuries, most of which we think we've already healed._

_Justine_

When the letter was finished she handed it to Kris, who whispered his charm, then propped it on the vase of flowers on the coffee table. "C'mon hon, lets go kick some French Quidditch ass!"

* * *

"I thought you didn't like movement?" Ax said, watching as Tanya prepared for the Quidditch match. "I know you hate boats and stuff. For that matter, you didn't look too bad on the train coming to school this year."

"I hate movement in _enclosed_ spaces," Tanya replied calmly, "Boats are just nasty, but flying is cool. And you might remember that the compartment in the train is _proportional_, and was very big – that was probably because I was there."

"_Oh_."

"OK, everyone who isn't on the team, get out into the stands," Adam called, "we're nearly on now, I'm sure."

"How many of us are there, anyway? Is anyone coming from school?" Ax asked.

"No, it's just us three," Tegan replied, walking over with Alyson to join him. "And I'm thinking the Hogwarts students will be cheering for Beauxbatons – they really don't seem to like us much."

"Understatement of the year," Alyson remarked.

"We could always cast Sonorus, that would make us _really_ loud," Tegan offered a suggestion.

"Hey, there's a good idea!" Ax agreed, a familiar glint entering his eyes.

"Be afraid, be very afraid," Justine remarked, she knew _that_ look – it was the look that Ax and Kris both got when they were planning something funny … or dangerous … or illegal … or, more often, a nasty combination of all three.

"What?" Kris asked innocently, "We've been planning this all morning – it's all good."

"Bugger being afraid, now is the time for absolute terror," Justine muttered.

"Hey!"

"What? I'm telling the truth!" Justine cried.

"Out!" Adam yelled.

"And CHEER!" Tanya roared after their retreating forms.

There was a sudden roar from the pitch to the left. "Looks like the first game's over. That means we're up!" Kris remarked, prancing happily around the room.

"Screw this, you're stealing _my_ role," Saul added. "So you'd better bloody stop!"

Adam raised his hand in the air, silently calling his team to gather around him. Once they were in a circle around him, he lowered his hand until it was parallel with the floor. Starting with his fellow Chasers, Saul and Kris, then the Beaters, Justine and Jeffery, the Keeper, Jacque and the Seeker, Tanya all laid their hands over his.

"OK team. We are the best. We will thrash them. Let's go," Adam said, and the team roared their approval, throwing their hands into the air.

"Short, sweet and to the point – I like it," Jacque said. "I would have said almost exactly the same thing in your place." All of them went to grab their brooms.

Kallaix Academy had supplied their team with the latest model of broom from Southern Cross Ltd – the leading broom producers in Australia. The _Silverstar_ was made of Silver Oak wood, with sterling silver trimmings, and was the best broom on the Australian market – a match for Britain's Firebolt Brooms Ltd, though the _Thunderbolt_, the latest model, both came close in both performance and speed.

The door opened, and Severus Snape entered the change room. He looked around at the Kallaix students. "Very … _white_," he remarked. The Kallaix students looked over themselves – with cream robes and white brooms, he did have a point.

"Mate, we're from _Aussie_, it's _hot _there – think cricket," Kris called.

Severus smiled slightly, "Of course," he agreed calmly. He liked most of the Australian contingent, and this Kris was no exception … except that he kept reading that he was Justine's boyfriend … a great downside, but oh well.

"Are you ready?" he asked.

"Yeah, we'll thrash 'em easy," Adam replied with a slight shrug.

"Are you not the Kallaix knights? The most respected and revered Quidditch team on the Australian circuit? These are the _French_. You will not 'thrash' them. Try destroy, ruin, decimate, annihilate, obliterate. This is your new vocabulary. Losing is just not acceptable... quite apart from the fact that I would feel your shame; I would have to pay that oaf Hagrid ten galleons, which is _completely_ unacceptable. No money of mine will be spent by a drunken lout on _beer_."

"What's wrong with beer?" Saul demanded.

Severus sighed in disgust, shaking his head slightly, exasperated. This one was _special_, he was.

"I take it back," Jacque remarked, "_His_ speech was good."

"I thought you said you liked my speech!" Adam cried, pretending to be hurt.

"I said I took that back."

"I'll be watching," he assured Justine quietly.

* * *

Ax watched as Severus Snape walked into the change rooms where the Kallaix students were currently located. They'd be out soon and then the game would begin

He wasn't at all worried – he knew it would be an easy match. Kallaix Academy had had two workshops the year before, one with the Thundelarra Thunderers, and then so as not to be outdone by their rivals, the Woolongong Warriors had done another. The Kallaix Knights were the best team of any of the Australian schools – as they proved by winning the Australian Tournament year after year.

"And here we have the Beauxbatons Bleus! I give you LeCourt, Vedas, Nichols, Dupont, LeCourt, Savant, Porter and _Jestour_!!!" Called the announcer – a former Hogwarts student named Lee Jordan, who Ax didn't trust. He looked like someone who played favourites. The French zoomed onto the pitch in blue uniforms.

"And now, the KALLAIX KNIGHTS" Lee bellowed, "CHASERS BLAKE, CROMPTON AND THORPE-TOWNSEND!" Adam, Kris and Saul zoomed out onto the pitch in perfect 'v' formation. "KEEPER QUAINE" Jacque pelted for her goal, then circled back to join the formation. "BEATERS CAMPBELL AND SNAPE" Justine and Jeffery shot straight up, soaring into the air, then death dropped, spiraling around one another, snapping back into formation at the last moment. "AAAND _BUSSA_!" Tanya sped into her place at the back of the formation.

Ax was glad that he was right about Jordan playing favourites, and he had picked the right team. Smiling smugly to himself, between Severus and Tegan, he prepared to implicate, 'The Plan'.

"Tegan, Alyson," he whispered, then murmured, "_Sonorus_," being a sword mage, he did not require a wand, all he needed was part of his flesh touching his sword – and with his hand on the hilt of his weapon, that was no problem.

Tegan and Alyson immediately followed his example, though both used their wands. Severus arched a questioning eyebrow.

Ax grinned, "_GO THE AUSSIES!_" He screamed at the top of his lungs, with Tegan and Alyson following his example, their voices cutting through the ton of Hogwarts support for the French.

Ax paused thoughtfully, noting out of the corner of his eye that Severus had calmly conjured earmuffs, and just as calmly put them on. He also noted that the Hogwarts students were turning to stare at him and his friends. He smiled.

"We aren't loud enough," he murmured to Tegan and Alyson. "You can only _just_ hear us. _Multipletius_!" his words had come out at a shout, and the next time he spoke, it sounded as if he was speaking from seven different positions throughout the pitch, and was much more effective. "_GO THE AUSSIES!_ _Perfect._"

"Surround sound? You're good," Severus noted with satisfaction. The Irish-turned-Australian was just as good as Justine had said he was … he was coming close to earning Severus' respect … something very hard to do. The only man who was still alive and had Severus' respect was Albus Dumbledore, and perhaps the Potter boy – but that was respect for actions, not personality, and Potter personally had _none_ of Severus' loyalty. The only other person was Justine, and she was family. But perhaps Ax, and the other boy, Kris, might get there. _Not_ the Joker – he was just annoying, if occasionally amusing.

"Well, I try," Ax shrugged – evidently the earmuffs weren't too strong, and his spell could still be heard through them. All the better.

The balls were out, the team was rising – the Aussies a helluva lot faster than the Frenchies. This match would be a breeze.

Adam grabbed the ball, and Ax vaguely heard the Lee Jordan fellow begin the commentary. He didn't listen too much – just making sure the bastard wasn't dissing his team.

Kris dove under the rest of the players, zipping up the field, and suddenly leveling up just to the left of the hoops. Adam hoiked the ball to Saul, who was hovering above, Saul flew to the opposite side of the hoops to Kris, went as if to score, the Keeper hurried to defend that hoop, and Saul tossed the ball to Kris, who stuck it through his hoop with embarrassing ease.

Justine and Jeffery floated lazily around the center of pitch, watching the game. The French Beaters were moving in on one of the Bludgers, but as yet, the Australian beaters weren't too concerned – their players were moving way too fast anyway.

Ax watched as the second Bludger headed towards Jacque, but he wasn't worried about it at all – Justine and Jeffery were already moving. They flew out away from each other, and circled in on the violent black ball, both hitting simultaneously in the direction of the other team.

"Looks like the Aussie' aims are off," Lee Jordan called, as the ball was going nowhere near the actual players. Justine and Jeffery smiled secretively at each other. Ax smiled – the other Australian teams were well used to this maneuver by now, and it never actually fooled them, but Britain had never seen the Kallaix Knights in action before. They were completely unaware of impending doom.

"YOU'RE A FEW CENTIMETRES LOW!" He yelled at them, "BUT I SAY AGAIN, _GO THE AUSSIES_!"

The Hogwarts students wondered what he was talking about, but then there was a sudden silence, followed by one pained (and delightful) French scream. The Bludger hit by Justine and Jeffery had actually hit the other Bludger mid air, and the immense power of the double swing sent both of them hurtling for French players – one of them struck a Chaser, the other went off sideways, as the angle hadn't been quite right.

Justine was already moving – the crowd, who'd been looking at the two Bludgers, had not seen her move and took a second to locate her – towards the errant Bludger, which was going after Tanya.

Ax saw her pause to speak for a moment with the Seeker, but was too far away to hear what was said, though he expected it was a bet of some sort, since they both shook hands over the broomsticks. Justine knocked the Bludger once again straight at its partner. There was a loud renting noise that silenced the stadium, and the second Bludger cracked down the centre, falling sadly in two pieces towards the ground. There was no malice in that broken thing.

There was a sudden, sharp whistle. Oliver Wood, the games Referee, with Madam Hooch on the other side. "OK, guys, I'm respecting your Doppelganger Defence, but that was blatant Blatching!"

Adam soared over and glared back at the ref, "Blatching is flying with the deliberate intent on knocking into a player of the opposing team," he informed Oliver. "This was two _Bludgers_ hitting each other – I fail to see a) how two players were involved or b) how that was against the rules!"

"Hmph," the Irish man muttered, thoughtfully. "I suppose that's true," he decided. "I read somewhere that that was against the rules. Especially breaking the ball."

Justine flew over – Bludgers were _her_ business, after all. "I'm sorry," she said to Oliver, "I guess Britain doesn't put reinforcing charms on the Bludgers. _Australian_ balls aren't _nearly_ so easy to break, though it can be done. I'm a little disappointed it only broke in two though, I thought the first break would come in three, but Tanya guessed two, so she won the bet."

"You've broken balls before?"

"Every match," Justine replied sheepishly. "I have yet to fail to break _one_ of the balls, but i'm tryingI swear!"

"One of?" Oliver sounded weary.

"They broke the Snitch once," Tanya put in cheerily.

"It got in my way," Justine said cheerfully.

Ax broke out into loud laughter; he remembered that day! His laugh echoed from ten different positions around the pitch, and was magically magnified. There was no other sound to block it out, and many people raised their hands to cover their ears. Everyone had stopped talking to hear what the ref had to say – most of them had been hoping the Australians would get a penalty for _something_.

The French ended up with a penalty, which they scored on, taking their score to twenty.

Play resumed. Tanya circled cheerfully above the game – while everyone had been looking at breaking Bludgers the Chasers had scored another five goals, and the ref had been forced to admit that the Australians hadn't broken any rules after all. The score was sitting on Twenty - Sixty. This was shaping out to be a good match.

The French had the ball now, and their lead Chaser, a pale skinned, blonde haired boy was flying towards the goal, Quaffle held securely with one hand. Coming to a halt in front of the hoops, he readied the ball to throw. Tanya could just see what was going to happen – another famous Kallaix move.

Jacque raised one hand, palm out, and spoke. "_Stop_," she commanded.

The boy froze just before he threw the ball, and looked questioningly at Jacque. "Do not throw that ball," the Australian keeper said, as if giving a friendly warning.

The French boy looked confused. Tanya wondered if he even _spoke_ English.

"Why not throw ball?" he questioned, French accent annoyingly strong.

"Because I told you not to," Jacque was clearly enjoying herself.

"Who are you to tell me to stop!" He was getting annoyed, but not nearly annoyed as he was when Jeffery aimed the Bludger point blank from only a few meters away at the Quaffle. It was knocked neatly out of the boy's hands, and Adam caught it underneath the boy, at whom Jacque blew a kiss.

"I think we're making more enemies," she commented to her boyfriend.

"Do we care?" Jeffery shot back, grinning and flying off "Call me if you need me."

* * *

Ax's attention was momentarily diverted from the game by the arrival of new people. His eyes narrowed as he recognised Draco Malfoy, then Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger and a few others. This must be the Hogwarts Quidditch team. Bastards. "Draco Malfoy sucks," he muttered, and of course his message was spoken all around the pitch. The beauty of this was that one of the places the charm activated from was … right beside the _suck_ing one.

The annoying blonde looked around, trying to find him. Ax smirked. Draco's eyes suddenly met his, across the pitch. Ax glared back, raised an eyebrow then muttered, "Yeah, I'm talking to you."

Draco looked confused. "_AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE!" _Ax roared as Kris tucked the ball away yet again. "_GO KRIS! YOU DA MAN!"_

Draco, Harry and the rest of the other Quidditch team hurried conjured their own earmuffs – Ax's voice was _painfully_ loud.

Kris looked down, hearing Ax's voice over the wave of groans from Hogwarts students, "_Who's your daddy?"_ he screamed as loudly as he could, and was just heard over the rest of the noise.

"_SAUL'S YOUR DADDY!_" Ax yelled, as the man in question flew over and gave Kris a high five, most likely repeating Ax's message in first person form.

"That bastard," Draco muttered, scowling across the pitch. "Why is Snape is not doing anything? Why is he not making that _Irish Imbecile_ – sorry Seamus – stop insulting me? Snape is supposed to _like_ me."

"I think he likes the Aussies more," Harry remarked. "After all – _she_ – is on the team."

Suddenly Draco yelped as the remaining Bludger came hurtling towards him. Justine was looking the other way and miming whistling innocently as she swung her Beaters club.

Draco grabbed for his own club, raising it just in time to deflect the Bludger. "It pays to keep equipment close by," Harry observed.

"Yes. Yes it does."

On the pitch, Oliver Wood had blown his whistle almost seventeen times in quick succession. "Geez ref, calm down," Saul yelled. "You've never been to a Thunderer-Warrior game have you? You should have_ seen_ that time that the Warrior captain's _wife_ came to the game, oi Justine, remember that?"

Justine grinned, "_Bedlam_. Quite inspirational. I'm surprised she survived honestly – how many times that Bludger hit her?"

"Seven," Jeffery replied, flying down to join her. "And we never even _saw_ that last one. I mean, hitting a man while he's down is supposed to be nasty, but hitting a woman being carried out in a stretcher? That's just … I don't have the words."

Tanya remarked. "Oh, by the way – ref? I caught this three minutes ago? Just before you blew the whistle the first time?" She waved the Snitch under Oliver's nose. "So that penalty really isn't necessary."

"Why did you think I hit in then? I'm not _British_," Justine muttered, then looked at her uncle with an expression like her favourite pet just died, "I'M SORRY SEVERUS!"

"For what?" her uncle called back, striding onto the pitch.

"That you weren't born an Aussie. Know this – while you were not born in my homeland, no insult I direct at the British is in any way reflecting on you. I believe I speak for the whole Australian Contingent in saying that you are, and will always be, an Aussie at heart, and one of the group!"

"Oh yeah!" Saul screamed, "Go the Brit-turn-Aussie!"

"Yes, thank you Saul," Severus said coolly.

Oliver suddenly turned to look at Tanya, "Hey! You've got the Snitch!" he cried.

"Yes, five minutes ago I told you I caught the Snitch three minutes before that – are we remembering this conversation? Déjà vu gone nuts."

* * *

"I didn't even see her catch that!" Harry cried, eyes wide with astonishment. "How could she catch that without me noticing it? I was watching her all along – trying to figure out her technique," he added quickly when Hermione glared at him.

"Good, I was starting to wonder if that article we saw was coming to life in front of my eyes – golden girl, honestly."

"Harry wouldn't fall for _the enemy_," Ron said firmly. "Harry doesn't go gallivanting off with members of the opposition … but I'm remembering someone else doing so once …"

"Oh shut up about Victor – I was _fourteen_!" Hermione yelled.

"You still call him Victor? Harry, I'd be worried," Ron said.

"Ron," most of the Quidditch pitch, plus Ginny with her wand out, growled at the red-haired boy.

"Shutting up now," Ron muttered, ducking his head.

"Stay that way," his sister warned.

"Hey, why was there only one Bludger? I'm not complaining or anything, because otherwise_ she_ might have hit both of them at me, but there were _definitely_ two in our game. I hit them both."

Ginny gave him a worried look, "You probably don't want to hear this …"

"What?" Draco's eyes narrowed to dangerous silver slits.

"Well, they did this Doppelganger Defence, but they hit the two bludgers together … and then Justine hit the Bludgers together on her own … and she smashed one of them in half. Apparently she's put one into thirds before."

Draco looked at Ginny. "She _broke_ a _Bludger_?" he repeated disbelievingly.

Ginny pointed wordlessly to where all of the Aussies were all landing. There was a glint of broken metal, and Justine kicked half of a Bludger out of her way with an expression of contempt. Oliver Wood flew down and grabbed the half, giving Justine an unnoticed grieved look.

"Shit."

"She's got a damn good swing, that girl. She hit me once and I was seeing stars for a week afterwards," Ron muttered.

"Why would Justine hit you?" Draco demanded.

"When I was arguing with her about why she dumped me for yo- forget I said that. I did _not_ say anything just then." Ron hastily clambered to his feet and raced off.

Draco spun around to the only other Weasley in the immediate vicinity. Draco looked at her, and Ginny raised her hands, palms out, "Hey, my brother's love life is _not_ my business. Or yours, for that matter … but it happened, yes," She then followed her brother's example, but made a far more collected job of it. At least she didn't nearly trip over her feet five times on the stairs.

* * *

Ax arrived down on the pitch and pushed his way through the crowds to try and find his team. Spotting the back of Adam's streaked head above the crowds, standing next to who he guessed was Saul and next to him was the back of Tanya's pretty little head. As he broke through he saw Justine riding around on Kris's back, one arm in the air holding her club. Alyson had their brooms and was laughing, leaning on Adam. Tegan, Jacque and Jeffery were pushing through toward the Lake, and Kris was beginning to head that way.

He turned, expecting Tanya to be standing next to Adam, but instead saw that she was walking away. He ran over to Adam clapping him on the back. "Congrats my comrade." He said laughing. "Knew you could do it."

Adam smiled in his bashful little way. "Those were our Warrior moves, we have yet to use the Thunderer techniques."

Ax just grinned some more and tried to locate everyone again, just to be sure.

The yelling contingent had arrived at the lake and was moving towards the wharves. Adam, Saul and Alyson were right behind them. Where was Tanya?

Looking around he spotted a fiery head down by the water, quite near the group, but away from them. Was she okay? Ax jogged over and called, "Hey, hon! What you doing?"

Ginny Weasley spun around, shamefaced at being caught staring at the Kallaix Boat. And it got worse, she had just been sprung by Alexander Kidson, sex on legs. Was this boy ever self-conscious? "Uh... Nothing, just walking."

The situation got worse. Seems that wasn't the answer he was looking for. "Where," he asked her, "Is Tanya?"

"The seeker?" Ginny asked, quite confused. "I haven't seen her, she was on the pitch after the game talking to ... hey!"

Ax had grabbed her arm and was trotting her towards the wharves. "KRIS!" He bellowed towards the boat.

As they approached the boat Kris came out and yelled, "Ax, Tanya! Join the party dudes," then did a double take, "Who's this... Ax are you bringing home strays now? You're not allowed to keep her, no matter how cute she may be..." Kris slipped his dark sunnies up onto his head. "Hey, I'm Kris."

"Ginny..." She managed to stammer.

"Is Tanya here?" Ax asked, quite annoyed, they had made a deal to all return to the boat directly after every task.

"No, I haven't seen her since we landed," Kris said turning serious.

Ax gestured for Ginny to walk ahead of him onto the boat. Up on deck there was the most beautiful patio like setting where a tall guy with little boyish charm was sitting looking through a book called_ "Quidditch Rules: The Revised Text." _next to another guy who was lounging on a deck chair with 'Boby 2' scrawled on the cushion. Neither of them thought it out of place for her to be on the boat.

Up on the top deck above the wheelhouse, a couple was sitting polishing their brooms, laughing as they read a newspaper called the 'Australian Wizarding Times'. "Hey Kris," called down the guy, "This reporter claims that last night you and Justine had a romantic dinner in Hogsmeade."

Kris broke out laughing, "If only those geniuses knew last night I shared dinner with you idiots and Sevie!"

Ginny choked, were they talking about Snape? What the hell? "Are you talking about Professor Snape?" she asked.

Every head snapped her way. "Good lord, it's an interloper. Are we kidnapping the British now?" asked the girl with the newspaper.

Ax just said, "Tanya's missing."

Justine flew up onto the deck, with Tegan and Alyson in hot pursuit. "Oh my god - they've got her, don't they?" Justine glared at Ginny Weasley. "Give me the Gryffindor tower code _now_, or you do not want to see what I'll do to you," she threatened.

Ginny looked at her, "What are you talking about?"

"If it was easy enough to mistake you for Tanya, we can just imagine where Tanya is, can't we?"

"I saw her walking off with the Gryffindor team," Alyson put in, "But I thought that was you, like we all did," she aimed this at Ginny, rather than at Justine, as the Head Girl already knew.

"Oh," Ginny said. "So why don't I just come up with you and get you in?"

"Easy," Kris stepped in front of her, taking hold of her arm. "Let's just say it's a matter of … leverage."

"Let me go!" Ginny protested.

Ax, who had until now dealt with the alleged kidnapping of his supposed crush rather well seemed to, with this comment, finally flip his little Irish lid. "Let_ you_ go! They might be torturing her for our secrets as we speak!"

Justine took a quick assessment of the situation. A) Ax was about to kill anyone in his path to the tower. B) Kris was a slut. C) It was true she had no idea what was happening to poor Tanya.

"Ax, breath OK, leave Ginny alone, she had nothing to do with this because obviously we _have_ her Her brother, part of the golden trio on the other hand will pay. Ginny give me the codes before I have to do something really nasty. You do remember I command that there dragon."

Ginny glanced out to the lake, where said dragon had been playing around in the water. Now it was coming towards the boat, and it wasn't looking particularly happy.

Ginny didn't say anything, just stared at the dragon. "I think she's afraid of dragons," Alyson remarked in a quiet aside to Justine. "Here they seem to think all dragons are a dangerous species or something."

"They are not!" Tegan yelled, overhearing the last comment.

"I was saying someone thought they were, not that they actually were Tegan, calm down," Alyson smiled.

"Who thinks dragons are dangerous? Let me at them!"

"We were talking about the British as a whole," Alyson replied. "You can hardly go and convince every person in this country that dragons aren't in fact dangerous at all … unless you upset them," Alyson said soothingly.

"I can _try_," Tegan muttered.

"Some other time love," Justine advised. "Now we have to go and get Tanya back."

The McEwan dragon came up to the deck, wondering what was going on to make her children upset. She looked around to check that they were all there. There were _her_ children, the funny one with brown hair and the kind-hearted werewolf.

There were the school children, the temperamental black haired girl and the sport-obsessed blue eyed Captain.

Then there were Steelwell's children, both of whom were on the topmost deck. The Wentworth ones – the honest unicorn and the boy who loved to fly. There was the flirty, sword-wielding one and the quiet – _not_ Kallaix child!

On deck, everyone watched as the dragon noted all of the people on board, and when she came to Ginny, who should have been Tanya, she did a double take, then hissed quietly.

"_Where is the flame haired child of Petersen_?" she demanded of Justine, though not everyone could hear what was being said.

"Well, there's the thing," Saul stepped in, as everyone else shuffled in front of Ginny. "She's gone … visiting, with some –uh- _friends_ in the school. Um, Ginny was, uh, about to … like … tell us how to, um … get there. Yeah."

Justine glanced at Ginny and arched an eyebrow, silently telling her she should hurry up with the codes.

"She's mindspeaking you, isn't she?" Ginny demanded. "I know she is – my brother Charlie works with dragons, and he hasn't stopped talking about yours since he heard about them."

"Yes, she's mindspeaking me," Justine said. "Now, tell me the codes so we can go and get Tanya and calm her _the fuck down_!"

The dragon roared and Ginny quailed.

Kris stepped forward. "Bunny, calm the hell down. Gin, come here love," he said, pulling her over, wrapping an arm around her shoulders, and then waved the McEwan dragon over. "McEwey, mate, this here is Gin. She's like an honorary Australian. You'll be seeing her _loads_ from now on. She's real cool, mate, real cool. You noticed how much she looks like Tanya does, so we're going to go and get Tanya, and then bring her back here, just so we know exactly how much they look alike, so we'll be able to tell them apart in future. Gin is going to stay here and have a nice little swim. The situation is completely under control, so why don't you go and do your … water dragon things, you know, go for a bit of a swim, tease the giant squid … you could take some letters home for us if you get bored, you know, the normal stuff."

Ginny looked at him, "I'm going for a _swim_?"

"You're going for a swim."

"_Bring the flame haired child back. The other one does not leave until all my children are safe_," the dragon informed him, then dove away, resurfacing not far away, and swam in lazy circles around the boat, clearly guarding it.

"She ain't gonna let you leave until we have Tanya back," Saul said cheerily. "So I guess you're stuck here … until you give us the damn codes."

"Sirius Major," Ginny blurted.

"Thank you!" Justine called over her shoulder, as she, Ax, Tegan and Adam started towards the dock. "Saul! Go swim with the dragon, keep her happy, OK? Alyson, go check on Winky, make sure _she's_ happy, Jeffery and Jacque …" Justine looked for them, and found them snogging on the top deck. "Stay there," she called, "Kris, baby-sit Ginny!"

"We'll go swimming," Kris replied.

"She's the same size as Tanya!" Ax called over his shoulder.

"You've been looking at Tanya's body?" Justine demanded.

"Can't get my eyes off it," was the cheerful reply.

"You've been looking at _Ginny's_ body?"

"I thought she was Tanya … for a minute."

"We will discuss this … later."

* * *

Up in the Gryffindor the entire Hogwarts Quidditch team was gathered. This was no longer a strange scene, despite the fact that quite a bit of the team was in different houses. They were discussing the tactics that they would have to use to get past the Kallaix team.

Tanya let her hair fall carefully in front of her face so that they wouldn't guess she wasn't actually Ginny. She was really good at being invisible, and this could come in handy later.

She was somewhat startled when Ron Weasley walked up to her and pressed a cup of hot chocolate into her hands. "Sorry about putting you on the spot earlier, with the whole me and Justine thing," he muttered softly into her ear.

_You learn something new about that girl every day … Justine Weasley? It just doesn't sound right,_ Tanya thought, nodding her thanks (and supposed acceptance of the apology) to Ron.

"Now, getting past their Beaters is really going to be tricky. If that girl can break a _Bludger_, she can break a bone," Harry said.

Tanya barely refrained from informing that Justine didn't break _bones_, she broke _brooms_. It was her policy not to actually injure the other team … unless she happened to particularly dislike one of them. Come to think of it, with Draco Malfoy on the team, Hogwarts was in trouble…

"So, to get past them we have to have Malcolm and Draco hold onto…" Harry was cut off as the portrait suddenly slammed violently open, with the Fat Lady protesting loudly at such treatment.

Justine Snape was really showing the family resemblance, with a scowl on her face that would have _really_ made her uncle proud. Behind her was Ax, hand on hilt and looking murderous, and Tegan, who was actually _growling_. Behind them was Adam, who was looking almost … pleasant?

"What the hell are _you_ doing here?" Draco demanded, staring at Justine.

"Well, for starters, I have as much right to be here as you … Slytherin Pig, as I was once in Gryffindor, unlike you, who are a _wannabe_ member – or so the rumours say," Justine sneered back at him. "Ronald, have you noticed that you are missing someone lately? Or do you pay so little attention to your younger sister that you have KIDNAPPED OUR SEEKER!" the last was said at a roar which set everyone quivering – a mad Snape was _not_ a good thing, and this was starting to really remind a lot of the Gryffindors of Potions classes. Behind them the Fire roared high in the fire place.

"Dammit Justine," Tanya stood up, chucking back the last of the hot chocolate, "They were just about to discuss how they were going to get passed your defence with the Bludgers – they are _so_ clueless, but yeah …"

"Ginny?" Ron asked, looking at Tanya.

"For god's sake, does you sister really have an Australian accent?" Tanya demanded, blue eyes sparking dangerously.

"And there's the proof, ladies and gentlemen – though I use the term very loosely – the eyes are _blue_, not brown, the voice is Australian, not British, she can catch a Snitch … have we ever seen Gin play Quidditch?"

"No," Adam replied. "But we can try out for the team, since McEwey thinks she's an Aussie now."

"Why are you calling her Gin, where is she, and who, _exactly_, is 'McEwey'?"

"Are you dissing my dragon?" Tegan demanded.

"McEwey is Saul's name for the McEwan House Dragon – you may have noticed the big blue water dragon swimming around lately. Imbeciles," Justine muttered disgustedly.

"YOU TOOK MY SISTER NEAR A DRAGON?" Ron screamed.

"YOU KIDNAPPED OUR SEEKER! UNLESS YOU IDIOTS HAVE YET TO NOTICE, KIDNAPPING IS A CRIME! INTRODUCTIONS TO THE DRAGON WERE JUST PLEASANTRY!" Justine thundered back.

"Introductions?"

"Well, we had to introduce to the dragon, otherwise she might have been killed for stepping onto the boat. McEwey is a little … overprotective of her children."

"I always thought that you looked somewhat serpentine," some anonymous voice muttered from the background. "I guess it's just draconic nature to be uncontrollable."

"Oh that's it! I'm gonna kick all your asses in the hunt! You just wait and see!" Justine drew back her hand and punched Ron straight in the eye – just for good measure, then turned and was about to stalk out of the common room in disgust when Hermione came over.

"Where exactly _is_ Ginny?" she asked, "You have your Seeker back now, we would like our house mate."

"She's on the boat … with _KRIS_!" Justine looked at Ax, Ax looked at Justine.

"Oh shit," they said together, then Ax looked at his watch. "It's only been ten minutes, he can't have done anything too bad."

The pair of them took off at a run. Tegan shrugged slightly and wondered after them, and Adam went over to throw an arm over Tanya's shoulder and lead her from the room.

The Gryffindors all looked at each other, "If my sister's been hurt, I'll …" Ron said.

Tanya looked over her shoulder, "If you can't tell her apart from me, you aren't in any position to make threats … even if you do make a _kick ass_ hot chocolate," she pulled the portrait gently closed behind her, and they heard the Fat Lady muttering something about some people being considerate.

"Who's going down there with me?" Ron demanded, clearly not ready to face a dragon on his own, even for his sister.

"I will," Draco said immediately.

"No," Hermione replied. "You'll just make Justine angry, and we are trying to keep the dragon calm, remember? I'll go."

"I should come to then," Harry decided.

"Let's go already!" Ron replied, and pulled the portrait roughly open.

"You should take lessons in portrait care from that nice Australian girl," the Fat Lady informed him huffily.

* * *

Justine and Ax skidded down the wharf and leapt onto the boat. The McEwan dragon, swimming with Saul, looked up with interest, and headed over, with Saul struggling to keep up.

"Ginny?" Justine called out hopefully.

"In the pool!" Kris yelled back.

"He might be drowning her!" Ax cried, and raced over, just the Hogwarts students, along with Tanya and Adam came down the stairs of Hogwarts and headed for the boat also, Harry and Ron in the lead, with Hermione a little way behind – she didn't think the Australians would actually hurt anyone. Adam and Tanya were walking slowly, probably discussing Quidditch tactics.

When the Hogwarts people tried to get onto the cruiser, the McEwan dragon rose up out of the water, growling deep in her throat, determined not to let them pass.

"We need to get onto the boat," Hermione told the dragon clearly, speaking as if to a child. The dragon did not take kindly to this, and growled louder. The three of them backed away.

"My sister's on the boat," Ron tried this tactic.

Had anyone been able to understand the dragon's speech, they would have heard, "_My child was in your castle. You didn't see me coming up and demanding entrance like I owned the place_." But no one could.

"McEwey, it's ok – they just came to see me back and get Gin," Tanya walked up to the dragon without any fear at all.

"How can you not be afraid of that thing?" Ron demanded.

"If anyone was around to translate for her, I'm sure she'd be telling you that she is a 'being', not a thing."

Justine turned up on the boat, looking down at them, "Yeah, and after that, she says that Ginny is one of her children now, and you can't have her."

Hermione sighed, "Back away guys. If a dragon declares a human it's child, well, that person is pretty much protected for life."

"Yeah, and we have six dragons declaring our whole school their children," Tanya remarked, "And Kris and Justine command all of them, well to the extent that being heads of our school allows. The rest of us can only request the services of our house dragons, since we're prefects. All students can hear the mind speak of their house dragon, and all students can hear the school dragons, Aiden and Rhiannon."

"Remind me not to mess with you outside of the Hunt," Harry said, "That's a lot of dragons."

"Wait till you meet them," Justine advised, "Aiden and Rhiannon are completely _unforgettable_ in the draconic world."

"Can we please have my sister back? Or at least come aboard?" Ron asked.

"McEwey, these nice people are going to come aboard the boat. Just this once though – if they try and sneak on in future, you can do your little thing and hurt them bad for all I care," Justine decided, then smiled brightly, "Welcome aboard!"

"I take it Ginny is fine," Tanya added.

"See for yourself, she's in the pool," Justine replied.

The group made their way to the back of cruiser. "You have your own _pool_, on a _boat_," Hermione asked.

"Well we can hardly have one in the lake now can we," Tegan called out cheerily. Tegan headed up to where Jacque and Jeffery had been making out previously – they had stopped to watch something at the other end of the boat, however. Tegan joined them with a newspaper, and read the headline, "Justine, Mark is going to propose at a romantic dinner tonight!'

"Really? I'll have to find something nice to wear then," Justine drawled, then did a backtrack, "Hey, didn't I accept Kris's proposal yesterday?"

"No, you were undecided," Jacque called back, "You said you needed a couple of days to decide."

"Oh," Justine said thoughtfully, "That's right, I forgot about that. Well, I'll have to make a big decision between my two big brothers … and I don't really want to marry either of them just yet, if ever."

"I know – these tabloids are just way out. Any minute now they'll have Ax proposing … or Saul."

"Oh, that's just _nasty_," Justine remarked, "Nothing against them either, but the idea of marrying either of them is just nasty."

"Justine, pages three to ten are about the Hunt and how well you'll do," Tegan put in.

"How many articles on us are in this newspaper?" Justine asked.

"Only seven, they're calming down," Tegan called back.

"Finally, by the end of the hunt we might be down to three again," Justine muttered.

"You mean, all those articles in the photo album were real?" Hermione blurted.

"What photo album?" Justine demanded.

"Colin found it the night of the welcome feast," Harry replied. "There were lots of pictures and newspaper articles."

"Oh, yeah, they were all real articles, we keep them to laugh at – most of them never get anywhere near the truth," Justine replied. "Well, the ones on romances never do anyway."

"Yeah, this is all cool and stuff, but where is my sister?" Ron demanded.

"Hi Ron!" Ginny was balancing on Kris's shoulders, wearing what had to be one of the skimpiest swimsuits he had ever seen, which was sparkling violet. Alyson was balancing on Saul's shoulders and they were apparently having some sort of wrestling/water war type thing.

While Ginny was distracted by her brother's arrival, Alyson seized the moment and shoved. Ginny would have gone sprawling into the water, but Kris threw his hands up over his head and onto her back, pushing her back into place. "You're lucky I usually do this with Justine – she _never_ holds on."

"I do too!" Justine protested immediately.

"You do not," Kris unwisely set himself up for the argument.

"That's it! I'm going for my swimmers!" She headed towards the wheelhouse, passing Ron, Hermione and Harry, who were all looking rather lost, on her way. "Ron, Harry, come with me. Jacque! I need you to deal with Hermione's swimsuit – she's about your size."

"I'm on it," Jacque called back down.

Tanya glanced at Ginny, 'You're lucky I have two swimsuits," she remarked, then stripped off the red robes she'd changed into after Quidditch, revealing a virtual twin of Ginny's swimsuit, just in pale blue, rather than violet, and dove gracefully into the pool.

The rest of the Quidditch team were also stripping off their outer robes and diving into the pool. Ax surfaced beneath Tanya, balancing her on his shoulders, and they joined the war. Tegan just shook her head and stayed where she was, Jeffery waited for his girlfriend to return, apparently unwilling to join the war either. Adam joined them up there, happy to avoid the misfortunes of others.

Hermione and Harry were the first to return, along with Jacque, and while the first two joined the war, Jacque rejoined her boyfriend. Hermione had borrowed one of Jacque's swimsuits, and as all of them were gifts from Jeffery, this was not a good thing – unless you happened to be Harry. She was wearing a black bikini with a mesh tank top over it; kind of punk, very sexy, and Harry was wearing a pair of Kris's board shorts, and had been somehow persuaded (by force) to take of his top.

They just walked around the pool, accustoming themselves to the movements they would need to use.

Justine and Ron came up shortly after, Justine having found Ron some of Adam's shorts, and having changed herself. She looked around the pool then remarked to Ron, "Looks like I'm with you."

"Looks like it," Ron agreed, not sure if this was a good thing, as he was already getting a black eye from earlier. Justine noticed this, and touched a fingertip to his eye. The hurt, and the bruising, disappeared immediately.

"You know my temper," she remarked, "I didn't really _mean_ it."

"Yeah, I know you," he replied, watching her with _something_ in his eyes.

Justine looked uncomfortable for a moment, then dove into the pool, with Ron following a second later.

"Adam, can you do the honours?" Kris called out.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I pronounce thee … at war. I give you leave to blow thy enemies to tiny bits, as they have been naughty in my sight."

"Too much Monty Python is _not_ good for a person," Tegan could be heard commenting, not that anyone was paying attention, as they all plowed into one another rather viciously in some cases.

For a while there, Ron and Justine were doing really well, unseating first Alyson, then Hermione. These two couples then retired to the sidelines to watch.

Kris and Ginny came after Ron and Justine, and after a short battle, managed to unseat Justine, sending them to the sidelines. Now the pool was left to Ax and Tanya against Kris and Ginny, two almost identical girls up against each other.

"Bet you Tanya wins," Justine muttered to Ron.

"Three sickles on Ginny," he replied immediately.

"Your loss," Justine replied, accepting the bet.

"Noble steed! Attack with caution!" Tanya cried.

"Hey, noble steed is over here!" Saul yelled from the comfort of 'Boby 2'.

"I have a new steed now," Tanya replied, as she and Ax headed for Kris and Ginny. "You might be nearly my twin in looks, but I shall prevail against you!" she added to Ginny, evidently having the time of her life.

"We will emerge victorious!" Kris yelled, and ploughed towards his foes, with Ginny clinging to his shoulders. They met halfway across the pool. Ax retreated slightly, with Tanya battling it out with Ginny on his shoulders. Kris tried to jump after him, forgetting that Ginny was on his shoulders, and the pair of them tumbled into the water.

"Ha-ha! Who's emerging victorious now?" Ax cried, "Who's YOUR daddy!"

"I'M NOT YOUR DADDY! I'M KRIS' DADDY!" Saul yelled.

"What is it with that anyway?" Ginny asked.

"It's Kris's line," Ax replied, "and Saul added the last bit on last year … running joke."

"Ah," Ginny replied.

"Hey, we're having a party tomorrow night, you guys wanna come?" Justine invited.

"We can come back?" Ron sounded as if he could hardly believe his good fortune, his eyes on Justine.

"So long as you quit it with the seeker stealing, and don't bring the blonde bastard anywhere near our boat, sure," Ax replied.

"Blond bastard? You mean Draco right?"

"Yeah, blonde bastard," Ax agreed.

Suddenly Severus Snape turned up on deck. Every one of the Hogwarts students froze. The Australian girls launched their dripping, scantily clad forms at the potions master, evidently delighted to see him.

"_Another child,_" the McEwan dragon remarked, popping her head up to make sure that nothing was wrong with the person trying to get onto the cruiser._ "The big frowning child_," she dove back under the water, satisfied there was no danger.

Justine was babbling about the Quidditch match, Tegan and Tanya were clinging to one arm each, also babbling about the match, and Alyson was hopping from one foot to the other, hoping to get a hug in somewhere.

Severus seemed calm enough to allow this, even if he seemed out of place, even going so far as to listening to the babbling, until he saw the other occupants of the cruiser. He turned to them, smile replaced immediate by a slight frown – though not, everyone noted, a full on glare – "_Potter_," he sounded astounded, "Granger … _Weasleys_?"

"We invited them along for a little gathering," Justine said, snuggling under her uncle's arm. "No problem, is it?"

"No - no problem," Severus seemed still a little surprised. "But Justine, we need to talk in the dungeons for a moment, mind if you join me?"

"No, not at all," Justine replied sunnily, and grabbed her cloak, throwing it over her skimpy swimsuit.

"We need to have a very serious talk…"

* * *

(There you have it, Chapter Six ofour baby (Princess wipes away a tear and sobs on Gabbies shoulder) my little baby's all growing up cries))

Yay, I (WolfMoon) get to do the thanks again! It's great to hear from you guys, and please keep reading/reviewing! Reviews really make our day!

**FreedomStar**: There will be some more on the Hogwarts students as time goes on … the Kallaix students aren't 'power crazy', as such, they just like being the best - they are in Australia, and they are used to it.

**Dark672**: Thank you! I'm glad you like it!

**Ava Monroe**: You're one of our top reviewers, you'll probably get more chapters dedicated to you as time goes by! Good to know we cleared everything up for you. I'm glad that you are enjoying the original characters. When Princess first told me about the story (she was the one who came up with it), I was a little hesitant about the OC's myself, but as you said, they are lovable and great to work with - I've really enjoyed writing the story, and I hope you enjoy reading it. Not all Australian's use those expressions, although it's always funny when they do. Harry's going to fit in more soon, and it's going to be good.

**GodDarkness**: Good to know we've got the accent right - if we didn't, we'd have to die in shame -laughs- Leon is pretty cool, yeah, but then, I think that about all of the OC's. Bobby2 rocks - one of my epiphanies. I loved it. We're editing the Snape-ness at the moment, so hopefully you won't have that problem in the future. OI OI OI!!!! (princess grins "**OI**")

**Queen of the Jungle**: MATE! (princess runs over for big hugs and grins - "_maaate_")

**PhoenixMan**: Don't worry, in those events where Harry takes part (he can't in all of them, of course) he kicks arse, don't worry about that! I love Harry too much to allow to him have anything less, after all.


	7. Veritaserum, House Elves and General Hor

_(Princess grins)This Chapter is my baby, and therefore not very Harry-centric, sorry. (sheepish look) It started as a filler and turned into this... so i dedicate it to Bladeknight, our cool as critic! (Wolfmoon glares at poor defenceless Princess, "There WILL be more Harry)_

* * *

**Chapter Seven**: _Veritaserum, House Elves and General Horniness_

"What's wrong Sevie?" Justine asked her uncle, sitting opposite him in his dungeon quarters.

"Justine," he said with a pained expression, "do not use that insufferable nickname. The Gryffindors claimed you have … kidnapped … one of their house members," Severus said delicately.

"Which one?" Justine asked flippantly, "We seem to have four with us at present."

"Ginny Weasley," Severus replied. "They are also claiming that you physically abused Ron Weasley, though I saw no sign of it, that you threatened to kill them all, and that you threatened to set the McEwan dragon, as a dangerous beast, upon Ginny Weasley unless they did what you wanted them to. And worst of all, that you broke into their private tower without leave," here he rolled his eyes in evident disgust.

"THOSE LITTLE SHITS!" Justine yelled, and then thought about it, "Actually, they do have something of a point … but they have all the facts twisted."

"Be that as it may, in five minutes you are expected in Dumbledore's office for a formal enquiry into the matter. Our Head Boy, Draco Malfoy, the Head Girl, Hermione Granger and Harry Potter will be there … is there anyone who you wish to be there also?"

"Kris," Justine replied immediately, without thinking about it at all, "and Tanya, since she's quite involved in this … being my evidence and all."

Severus looked a little worried at the first name, but relaxed when she requested someone else to join them. "Very well, I shall send for them to join us in the Headmasters office. Come," he stood up and led her from the room. He did not see her grab the small vial labelled 'Veritaserum', thinking '_this could come in handy_.'

Draco was pacing around the Headmasters office, wondering where everyone else was. He almost wished that Seamus hadn't told McGonagall what had gone on in the Gryffindor common room not long before.

"Where are they?" he wondered, inadvertently speaking aloud.

"They will come," Dumbledore replied calmly.

Suddenly there was a knock on his door, which quickly opened. Severus and Justine Snape swept into the room, Justine somehow managing to pull of the threatening stalk in mimicry of her uncle, despite the fact that she was wearing a skimpy, wet swimsuit and a cloak, in the chilling English weather.

"Ah, Severus," Dumbledore greeted, "Lemon drop?"

The Headmaster had offered Draco one of those as well; Draco had declined, as did Justine and Severus. Dumbledore sighed, and took two for himself.

There was a second knock on the door, and then Harry, Hermione, Kris and the girl who looked like Ginny, he thought her name was Tanya. All of them were looking similar to Justine, with Kris in wet board shorts and t-shirt, Tanya in sparkling blue swimmers, also with a t-shirt thrown on over the top, and Harry and Hermione with some of their school clothes on, but also wearing swimmers.

"Lemon drop?" Dumbledore offered.

"Sure," Kris replied, walking over to take one cheerfully. Tanya followed his example.

"You know, I think that's the first time anyone has ever accepted a lemon drop," Dumbledore remarked thoughtfully. "It's always nice to see old traditions discarded."

"Yeah, how nice," Kris agreed, somehow managing to make it sound polite.

"If we can get off the subject of sweets, Headmaster, I would like to see who is the actual guilty party in this equation," Severus spoke up coolly. Draco noted that there were wet patches on the Potion Masters robes also. What the hell was going on here?

"Ah yes … well, I'm sure you've told Justine what she's been accused of, but the fact is we can hardly determine who is right simply from stories," Dumbledore murmured.

"What exactly is going on here?" Tanya enquired politely.

"They accused us of kidnapping Ginny, threatening to kill people, physical assault, breaking and entering … um, did I miss something?" Justine asked.

"Threatening a dragon on them," Severus put in helpfully.

"Oh yes, that too," Justine agreed.

"Right, gotcha," Tanya nodded. "And they actually think we did this? I mean, you guys kinda did some of it … but not without provocation."

"Exactly," Justine replied.

"See, she's admitted it," Draco jumped in, hoping to get this over and done with so that he didn't have to look at _her_ in a swimsuit that still wrecked havoc with his body, however much he told himself he hated her.

"She just said we did some of it," Kris yelled immediately, "And it was under provocation!"

"She still admitted it," Draco snapped. "As far as I'm concerned anyway."

"Kris, he isn't worth the breath," Justine interrupted the argument, "Besides, there is a simple solution to this. I was present while all of this was occurring, therefore, I think this will clear things up nicely," she held up the bottle labelled Veritaserum, holding it so that everyone could read it. "Hope you don't mind, Severus, but I borrowed this from your chambers," she added, smiling benignly at her uncle. "Since you are here, I will be happy to take a designated amount of this potion and answer those questions that you might have – that way we can prove the guilty party once and for all."

"Very well, as a family member of Justine Snape, Severus, will you authorize the use of Veritaserum on your niece?"

"He doesn't have to," Kris broke in, "In Australia, wizards come of age at sixteen. Justine is fully allowed to make her own decision in this situation, without any parental influence."

"I would prefer it if only my uncle asks me questions, as while under the influence of this potion, I am not in control of what I wish to reveal and what I do not," Justine put in calmly. "I fail to see any reason for me to trust most of you in this room, for various reasons."

"Very well," Dumbledore said calmly. Draco was worried – what would Justine say, anyway? The truth would hurt Hogwarts more than her, since Seamus had sort of lied when he told McGonagall what was going on… Oh well, it was too late to stop it now.

Severus called for a goblet of fruit juice, letting three drops of Veritaserum fall into it. "Justine, three sips, no more."

Justine nodded, and took three sips of the drink. Draco watched as her face relaxed a little, and her eyes lost their focus completely. "What is your name?" Severus asked the standard beginning question.

"Justine Elizabeth Selene Snape," she replied in a flat monotone.

"Did you, today, kidnap the person of Ginevra Weasley, Hogwarts student?" he asked.

"No," Justine replied. "She was brought aboard our cruiser when it was discovered that our Seeker, Tanya Bussa, had been taken by the Hogwarts students. She was held on the cruiser until we got our Seeker back – the McEwan dragon would not have allowed her to leave until Tanya was returned to us."

"Well, I think that fairly well justifies the actions of my niece in regard to the first offence," Severus spoke out calmly.

"Ask her about the rest of the offences please, Severus," Dumbledore replied.

"Justine, did you enter the Gryffindor Tower without permission today?"

"No," Justine replied. "Ginny told me the password so that I could go and get Tanya. And as I was once a Gryffindor student, so in some respects, that place in Hogwarts is still mine."

"That covers that offence," Severus pointed out.

"Ask her why Ginny gave her the password," Draco demanded, "I can't imagine she would do that of her own free will."

Severus dutifully repeated the question. "The McEwan dragon was distressed at the loss of one of those she regards as her children, and when she saw Ginny, she assumed that Ginny had something to do with her disappearance. The dragon attempted to take charge of the situation, but the Kallaix students intervened, and Kris presented an alternative: for us to go and collect Tanya. To keep the dragon calm, Ginny gave up the password, and was left as an assurance that our wishes would be carried out, and Tanya would be returned to us."

"I fail to see how the Kallaix students were in the wrong in any way," Severus stated.

"I am finding myself in agreement with you Severus. However, the idea that your niece may have threatened to kill someone at Hogwarts concerns me greatly. I would certainly like that matter to be cleared up before we let Justine leave to wait out the potion's effects in the comfort of your office."

"Justine, at any point today did you threaten a Hogwarts student with death?"

"Yes."

"Were these threats serious?" Severus asked.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"As the Head Girl of Kallaix Academy, the students' welfare is my responsibility while away from the school. Tanya was kidnapped. Fearing harm to her person, I threatened anyone who attempted to get in my way and prevent me from fulfilling my duty with death. I also sent a Bludger at Draco Malfoy with the intent to harm. I do not like him. Also, while playing a game in the pool on the Kallaix cruiser, I told Harry Potter that unless he and Hermione Granger got out of my way, I would run them down and send them to hell."

"Well, that's just fulfilling her duty, as she said," Kris put in, "it's what's expected of our Head students when in a hostile environment."

"I fail to see how a pool could be described as a hostile environment," Dumbledore remarked.

"You've never played wrestle wars," Justine returned in flat monotone.

"Well, she certainly seems to be telling the truth, but the potion could be wearing off, so if you would proceed to the charge of physical abuse, Severus?"

"Justine, at any point today, not including any form of recreational sport, did you harm a Hogwarts student?"

"Yes," Justine replied.

"Who did you harm, how, and why?"

"Ron Weasley. I punched him in the eye. He was annoying me. I fixed it later."

"She did," Harry put in calmly.

"How did you fix the injury?" Severus inquired at Dumbledore's urging.

"With a spell," Justine replied calmly.

"What spell?"

"A healing one."

"What incantation did you use?"

"Heal," she replied.

"What spell is this?"

"I do not know its name. It is something only Magai's can do, I think."

"You are a Magai?"

"Yes."

Harry and Draco looked at each other. This was _not_ a good thing. They had counted on being the only Magai's present – now they had a rival Magai and a sword mage to deal with. Not to mention a werewolf and a unicorn – this was shaping out to be more than they had bargained for. No wonder so many newspapers were backing Kallaix.

"I think my niece has answered all the questions to your satisfaction," Severus remarked, "If you don't mind, I'll take her down to my office now, and send her out to the cruiser when she has recovered from the potion."

"She'll be fine with us!" Kris cried out.

"I would prefer she came with me, there are some people who suffer from adverse effects upon recovery after the use of Veritaserum," Severus stated.

"Fine," Kris spat, and left the room. Tanya glanced at the other occupants, then followed him, along with Hermione, who left at a nod from Dumbledore.

"She's recovering from the potion, Severus," Dumbledore remarked.

"Yes," Severus agreed.

"That dose should have knocked her out for an hour."

"I know."

"She really is a Magai," Dumbledore mused.

"She might be recovering, but she could not have lied," Severus pointed out. "If you don't mind, we shall take our leave, Headmaster."

"Very well. Harry, Draco, remain please."

Draco knew that Harry would contemplate leaving anyway, and shook his head slightly at his brother in-law. Harry hesitated, still on the brink of defiance, then nodded slightly, and stayed where he was.

"Harry, Draco, I want you to talk to Justine whenever possible, about being a Magai – she seems to be dealing with this fine on her own, but all the same, it would be good to ensure that she is loyal to our side."

"With all due respect," Harry started, "Now is not a good time to be talking to Justine at all. We are opposing teams in a competition that we both want to win. Anything we ask her she may not want to answer, as it could be used against her in the upcoming events."

"So it's not a good idea to talk to her, but it's fine to swim in her swimming pool? And wrestle with her?" Dumbledore enquired. "This point of this entire event is to strive for unity between schools, I'm happy to say you seem to be working with this admirably."

"Completely different concept," Harry replied, "That was just a bit of fun – actually asking questions about powers is a sure fire way to lose her trust entirely."

"She won't answer until the hunt is over and there is no way this can be used against her," Draco put in. "I know Justine, however much I may wish I didn't. While Justine's loyalties to others may falter, her loyalty to her uncle, her country and the right side will not…. Her loyalty to that Kristopher fellow probably won't either," this last sounded more than a little spiteful.

* * *

Severus opened the door to his rooms, and sat Justine down in front of his desk. "Is the potion still working?" he asked her.

"Yes," she replied.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Is Draco Malfoy handsome?"

"He's a right royal little spunk," Justine clapped her hands over her mouth and glared at Severus spitefully.

"Do you love Kristopher Crompton?"

"Yes, he is my brother in heart," Justine replied. "We dated once for a week, but it didn't work out. He was too over protective and we work far better as friends."

"Are you in love with Ax?"

"HELL NO!" Justine replied. "He is my brother also. The idea of being anything more is just weird."

"Are you still in love with Draco Malfoy?"

Justine clapped her hands over her mouth again, and gave some indistinguishable mumble in response. Suddenly, she let her hands fall and stated clearly, "I am a chicken. Hey, cool it's gone!"

Severus sighed.

"Did you have to ask me that?" Justine demanded with a hurt expression.

"Yes," he replied. "I had to find out if it was safe to allow either of those two boys into my confidences – I wouldn't want to let them get a little close then have to kill them."

"I wasn't talking about _that_ question and you know it," Justine told him.

"Oh, the Draco Malfoy thing – I thought it might be dangerous for you if you were," Severus replied. "I remember how much he hurt you last time, and if he tried to get close to you again, to break your heart once more..."

"Oh fine," she sighed. "Still, please don't ask me questions like that again, I don't really like it."

"I won't," Severus promised. "You may as well join your school mates, it's getting close to dinner time now, you may wish to change into something more … socially acceptable."

Justine looked down at her swimsuit, "What's wrong with this? We wear it to dinner most of the time in Kallaix, especially in summer."

"This is Britain," Severus pointed out, "Quite apart from it being significantly cooler, we tend to stand more on formality. And the first round of the United Youth Conference starts immediately after dinner, you won't have time to change between the two events."

"Oh fine," Justine sighed, "You'll be eating at our table?"

"Of course," Severus replied.

"I'll see you at dinner Sevie," she told him, and left before he could admonish her for using the nickname.

* * *

Dinner progressed without incident, and soon enough everyone was shooed from the hall so it could be set up for the conference. Five minutes later the doors opened on a completely different room. There were eight raised daises, each one with a banner above it showing the school it was set aside for.

Kallaix's dais was set up beside Beauxbatons, at the farthest end of the hall, opposite from Hogwarts. "Well, the Frenchies ain't gonna like us after this afternoon," Saul muttered, "We _thrashed_ them."

"If they have a problem with that, it's just really poor sportsmanship … although being Australian, we aren't necessarily ones to talk …" Justine remarked.

"All depends on age groups too," Jeffery put in, "We are young, and like to be dominating … all the testosterone flying around."

"So how do you explain the chicks?" Jacque demanded playfully.

"Excess from us guys," Adam put in, since Jeffery seemed a little at loss.

"Riiiight," Justine remarked. "You are _so_ influential, after all … next thing you know, we'll be sprouting moustaches to follow in your oh so glorious footsteps."

"Hey, guys, if I'm speaking tonight, then I'd better be the first speaker," Tegan put in, "I have only an hour till moonrise and I really don't want to change into a fully fledged monster in the middle of a debate …"

"It would be great for morale … everyone would be cheering, or screaming … either way, there would be noise," Justine told her cousin cheerfully.

"Oh shut up," Tegan smiled back.

"Make me," Justine said.

"Just wait until moonrise and I will!" Tegan bantered happily.

Charlie and Hagrid stood up and called for the Schools to come and take their seats. The Kallaix students hurried down the Hall to their seats; Hogwarts were already there.

"So, Hagrid and Charlie are in charge," Ax remarked, "This should be interesting to say the least – you have two other dragon obsessed people in attendance. My only question is … _why Hagrid_?"

"They probably need someone to break up any physical abuses," Jacque remarked.

"Probably," agreed Adam, "Hagrid would be good at that."

"And we seem to have a few guests as well," Justine remarked, "The Hogwarts teachers all look pretty interested in this, and we seem to have interested the British Ministry as well … Pity Greg couldn't take a break from work and join us."

"Oh, he'll get here eventually," Kris shrugged, "I know my dad, he wouldn't miss the final Quidditch match even if it meant forfeiting his place as Minister, especially considering we'll be in it."

"Cocksure aren't you?" Tanya remarked.

"Well you have to admit that these guys don't have a clue how to deal with us – we were taught by the best and most violent Quidditch teams of our time," Kris pointed out.

"We are playing the Spanish tomorrow – shouldn't we take it seriously?" Jacque asked.

"We'll trash 'em," Kris said firmly.

"No, we will obliterate then, annihilate them, _destroy_ them," Adam said in a fake Snape voice.

The whole Australian contingent broke down laughing in their seats, earning glares from Charlie and Hagrid, who were trying to call everyone to order – and the Australians were _not_ helping.

"Ok you lot, quiet down, quiet down," the half-giant stood up and bellowed over the hall. This achieved their goal as everyone fell silent beneath the bombardment of sound. Charlie quickly took over, as he was far better at making speeches than his predecessor ever would be.

"The first round to the United Youth Conference is about to begin. Could each school please nominate three speakers?"

Without any discussion Tegan stood up and went to the first speaker's seat, shortly followed by Saul, since he _was_ in McEwan after all, and then, after some debate, Jeffery.

Soon after this the rest of the schools had their own speakers, and Charlie took centre stage once more. "Rules and regulations are as follows: one, you may not speak unless the orb in front of you is glowing." In front of the speakers' chairs was a long desk, with a large clear globe of glass positioned in front of each speaker, as Charlie spoke, all of the globes flashed gold simultaneously, then died out. "Each school when only be able to speak when myself or Hagrid has given them leave, at which point, the orbs will glow. Two; points will be deducted from your overall score for each infringement of the rules, or for threatening physical behaviour towards any other person in this hall." At this he looked towards the Australians - clearly he knew what had transpired in Dumbledore's office earlier that day.

He continued "Three, no student from any school who is not one of the designated speakers may contribute to any discussion at any time over the evening. Four, no wands are to be used in any fashion unless myself or Hagrid have been prior notified, and have given approval for said use. Five, to bring a discussion to the desk, write it on the piece of parchment found on the top right hand corner of your desk, and say 'submit', the parchments will then come to the front desk, and be chosen or discarded at myself or Hagrid's discretion and no student who is not a speaker may contribute a point of discussion. Six, to indicate your wish to take part in any discussion, one speaker from the school has only to raise a hand. Rule seven is if myself or Hagrid calls for silence at any point over the evening, any schools speaking after that moment will have points deducted from their overall score. For those of you who are yet to receive any points, you will be reduced to minuses, which you will have to make up through participation in other events."

Charlie took a deep breath, having said most of this in the space of a breath, "Finally, rule eight applies only to Hogwarts – as the host school, they are the only school with more than the designated ten students allowed in the competition … they are required to submit ten names now for the debating team," Charlie took his seat calmly. "Would all of you with an idea for discussion now write and submit it, so the Conference may begin."

Saul immediately grabbed his piece of paper and scribbled something on it swiftly. Before submitting it, he held it up so that the Kallaix students could read what it said – as his writing was very large, it was easy to see that it said, "_All schools should supply disgruntled students with candy_."

Tegan and Jeffery both also apparently had topics for discussion, though theirs would probably be a little more … mature, and actually be likely to be accepted by the teachers. When the last of the pieces of parchment had flown into Charlie's hand he began to read through the pieces. After he had read quickly about half of the paper, he came across one that made his eyebrows shoot up and a sort of fleeting half scowl fly across his face.

He coughed and said in a loud voice, "_Proposal for the destruction of the Australian Dragon colonies_." Tegan's hand shot up so fast that Justine and Tanya never saw it move between stationary and straight up.

"The speaker for Hogwarts Daphne Greengrass was the suggestee, so she will commence the argument, to be further discussed by Maritha LeCourt of Beauxbatons then Tegan Hall of ..." Charlie never got to finish as the doors of the great hall were thrown open and a tiny bronze dragon the size of a mini fox terrier strutted into the room.

Rhiannon had made her entrance.

Whispers erupted around the room as she slowly looked around the crowds, golden eyes glinting in dying sunshine. Spotting the Aussie area she began to walk over to them with an echoing clicking noise as her nails hit the marble floor.

Every eye had turned to watch the arrival of the dragon. Most students were gawking and many looked a little scared, although they would never admit to being scared of such a _small_ dragon. The creature strutted up to the desk which Tegan was seated behind, spread perfect bronze wings, and flew up, catching hold of a copper bar that ran along the length of the desk.

She gave a soft, self-satisfied trill, evidently well pleased with herself, then suddenly began to tilt backwards, scraping noises filled the air as she scrabbled to get a purchase on the metal. The attempt failed, and she tumbled backwards, hit the floor with a flump.

At almost exactly the same moment, another of the creatures flew through the air. This one was almost twice the size of the new arrival, and pitch black. Had anyone been watching Tanya Bussa of Australia, rather than the dragons, they would have seen an expression on her face similar to the dog that is ordered 'stay' just as a ball has been thrown.

As often happened in the case of the dog, instinct wins over vocal command. Tanya bounced to her feet, forearm horizontally raised above her head. The black dragon landed on her arm, and she hastily sat down again. The little creature curled up in her lap and demanded scratches, which he got.

The smaller bronze had righted itself and now took off, flying to land on Tegan's shoulder, trilling quietly. In the silence that prevailed across the hall, Tegan could be heard saying, "There there baby, it's not that bad. Let mummy stroke it better."

The dragon immediately dropped from shoulder to lap, and trilled happily while Tegan stroked it's apparently bruised back.

"I've never heard of this breed of dragon," Charlie said, with the proverbial dog and ball situation of dragons over duty.

"It's called the Antipodean Miniature, they're really rare and Australia keeps them fairly secret, you can imagine the trouble we would have with people trying to hide them and keep them as pets," Justine Snape spoke up from Tanya's side, also stroking the black. Hagrid was looking interested when she said that they could be kept hidden ... and the allusion to the fact that they could also be kept as pets.

"This is Aiden," Tanya put in happily, "The male of the breed is larger than the female, and generally darker."

"Rhiannon is a near perfect example of a female of the breed," Tegan put in, and the bronze trilled angrily, "You're a little smaller than most, honey, and no one is perfect, not even you. These dragons are one of the reasons that the Australian Dragon Colonies need to be protected not ... _destroyed_," this was said with a sneer in Daphne's direction.

"Well, since you're third speaker, we really have to hear from the earlier speakers, starting with Daphne Greengrass of Hogwarts," Charlie said, obviously wanting to ask more about the dragons - there are always those few occasions when the dog stays as commanded, after all.

The light in front of Daphne lit up, and she immediately said, "All dragons are dangerous, the only reason they haven't taken over the world is that the world knows exactly where they are - except in Australia..."

Tegan appeared completely uninterested in the arguments presented, playing with Rhiannon, who was now on the table top, rolling about, with tiny flashes of yellow fire playing occasionally at her muzzle. Daphne sat down, having repeated the fact that dragons were dangerous twice now. The second speaker, Maritha of Beauxbatons, waited until her globe was alight then, said, "The Australians can use mind control on their dragons. They'll command them to come and attack us eventually, to try and take over the world - an invincible army!"

"No, we'll just show you a Quaffle near a goalpost and you'll fall to pieces," Adam muttered mockingly, in reference to the French's shocking performance in the Quidditich earlier that day.

Maritha went white about the lips, and glared at him, then said, "That is my only argument, Professor Weasley," she said stiffly, and took her seat again.

"Tegan Hall of Kallaix," Charlie and Hagrid both sat forward, knowing this girl was going to flip, and defend their favourite creatures - the dragons.

"The only time and place that an Australian may 'command' a dragon is within the borders of Kallaix Academy, and that's only the school dragons, sworn to the protection of the school. We can request their aid, never demand it. Except for Justine, they like her and do whatever she wants ... whether she asks or not. The dragons are also a vital part of the Australian ecology, being integral to the food chain, and the land itself, as they regularly set the fires that must come to renew the land. They were there long before we wear - the land belongs to them and they allow us to live there through the goodness of their hearts ... well, most of them do..." she was speaking almost too fast to follow, just to make sure she got in as many points as possible. After all, her father was the Minister for the protection of said colonies. She was just launching into her eleventh point, something about Muggle relations (though how this could be a positive point, not even the Kallaix students were sure) when Charlie held up a hand.

"You have provided ten valid arguments for the preservation of the Australian Dragon Colonies, and I declare this topic closed. The next topic will be..." he started shuffling through papers again, having been too caught up in the arguments for this debate to chose the topic for the next one.

While the other schools waited, Justine and Alyson stood up and went over to Tegan, standing her up and walking her from the room. "Where are _you_ going?" Daphne demanded, "This event isn't over yet - though you might wish it was."

"Why? We just kicked your ass!" Tegan snarled.

"Our team mate is sick," Justine replied calmly, "We have already spoken to the Headmaster - Tegan wished to be present at least for a little while, but has decided that she is now too ill to continue." Tegan did indeed look rather haggard at present.

"That's right," Hagrid boomed cheerfully across the hall, "You go and have a nice rest lass, we'll hope to see ye back next round!" He apparently liked her for her arguments for the preservation of dragon kind.

Justine, Tegan and Alyson left the hall without further incident and descended into the dungeons. Severus was waiting for them, just a little way into the dungeon corridor. He handed Tegan a steaming goblet of Wolfsbane Potion, "I heard you used a cushion charm for your friend in Australia," he directed this to Justine, "I cast one in the dungeon I set up for your friend, there are pillows everywhere, and I left a roasted steak as well..."

"Oh Sevie, that's so sweet - I forgive you for being such a _butthead_ earlier," Justine smiled at her uncle while Tegan drank the potion down quickly. "How did you find out about the charm?"

"I talked to your friend ... is it Tanya? Small child, red hair - she came with you on the first day," Severus replied.

"That's Tanya alright," Alyson smiled.

* * *

Justine headed back to the cruiser a short time later with Alyson - neither of them could really be bothered to return to the conference - they'd be trashing any opposition anyway, and some of those first arguments about dragons had just been _sad_. No reason to go back to that. "Was it just me, or as we were leaving the hall, did I hear Saul mention he would be discussing Mandatory Magical Education?"

"It wasn't just you ... I pity the poor souls remaining in that hall," Alyson replied. "I'm sure we'll be told the details anyway - do you mind if we have some sort of soothing drink first?" Justine knew her friend was only teasing - she and Saul were very fond of each other ... she thought they _might _have dated at one point... maybe they still were ... Alyson wasn't one to speak of her relationships, and for some reason, Saul didn't usually brag.

On deck Justine noticed that the glasses from the Pina Coladas had all been cleared up, and the deck was now spotless, newspapers folded neatly on the coffee table upstairs. "Wow!" she said looking at Alyson, "It looks like the guys have actually tried to clean up this time."

Alyson looked back worriedly. "No, myself and Saul were the last off the cruiser, it was a royal mess."

Justine walked into the wheelhouse, which was gleaming and dashed down the stairs. "Oh. God, I'm so embarrassed, whoever it was has even had to clean up the mini bar."

"It was an honour!" squeaked a small voice form the lounge room. Winky was standing there, wearing her dirty little dress, which looked like she had made a valiant effort to clean it. "Winky is where little miss told her to wait. And good Winky has cleaned little miss's boat."

Justine looked down at the little elf, "Oh my god that is so cute! But how are you feeling? Do you hurt anywhere? Have you had anything to eat?"

"Winky is not sure why little miss would ask her this, Winky has been a bad house elf, she was given _clothes._"

"Why wouldn't I ask you, I was worried about you, it's polite to ask, not just throw food at you!" Justine smiled down at the elf."

Winky began to sniff copiously and muttered, "Winky understands Dobby's love of Harry Potter now miss, you is a good little miss."

Alyson went over and asked Winky to show her where all of her cuts were and checked her temperature. "She's fine to go now. She made the perfect recovery. Kris is going to be so cocky about his healing charm."

"Oh NO! Little miss don't send Winky away, I will be good I can look after you and other misses and sirs!" Winky began to bawl at the top of her lungs, a sound that intensified when Alyson gave her a hug.

Alyson's kinder nature shone through in the end. "Can we keep her?"

Justine was worried. What would Dumbledore say when he found out they were kidnapping, after the scene in his office today? "We can't steal Dumbledore's house elf."

"But look at her she wants to be in the Aussie contingent! You let Severus, _and _Ginny join us, why not her?"

"I have an idea. Winky do you want to be with us?"

"Yes miss, Winky be good house-elf, you'll see."

"You're going to have to do me a favour though and wear a uniform. Not rags." Justine said firmly.

"Winky is not sure what little miss means." Winky looked up at Justine and Alyson through her tears.

"I am going to expect you to stay clean, and _no drinking _at all, ever, of anythingremotely alcoholic without permission." Justine walked over to the elf, who was shaking her head so fast Justine thought it might fall clean off. She laid a hand on Winky's shoulder, and her soiled yellow dress turned into a perfect replica of the Kallaix uniform, with robes and blazer, (in emerald green for Wentworth of course) in Winky's size.

"Oh miss, I is so beautiful," Winky sounded completely rapt by the new uniform.

Alyson smiled, "Yes Winky, you are beautiful," she agreed kindly. "Now, we need you to go and get some rest – Justine will take care of everything to do with your ties to Hogwarts, and you must be tired from all that cleaning you did."

"Winky is not tired at all!" the house elf cried immediately, though her eyes were sinking closed as she spoke.

"Winky should go and get some sleep now," Justine repeated Alyson's message. "You've done a very good job on the boat, and there isn't anything else left to do right now, so you may as well rest."

"Yes little miss, Winky will go right now and rest," the house elf said immediately, then paused, "Where shall Winky sleep?"

"You take the couch tonight, that's where you woke up. We'll find you a better place tomorrow when everyone is around to help out," Justine decided.

"Winky is not wanting to be a problem for anyone. Winky could just sleep under the kitchen table, out of the way," Winky said.

"No! Definitely not! You will have a proper bed," Alyson said immediately, "We can set up a cot in my room if you like, but you are not sleeping on the floor!"

"But Winky doesn't want to be a problem!" The elf looked most distressed.

"Winky, just breath, you'll be fine. Now, go to bed and we can talk all of this over in the morning, alright?" Justine said firmly. "No arguments."

"Yes little miss," Winky said immediately and retreated to the lounge.

* * *

Tanya lay back against her seat, still absently scratching just behind Aidan's head – one of the few positions the dragon couldn't reach himself. She was completely bored now - Saul was rambling on about Mandatory Magical Education being a bad thing. Yeah sure, some of his arguments were good, and his speaking voice near perfect, but he kept throwing in unnecessary points or just bringing up utterly stupid reasons why this was a bad thing.

Sure, the guy was her friend, but didn't he know where to _stop_? Mandatory Education rots the brain? _Right_. Though his point about people being able to learn on their own was a good one, in her point of view.

Oh well, Tanya's eyes drifted closed, then snapped open, then drifted closed again. "_Is Tanya tired_?" Aiden asked her.

"Tanya is very tired," she murmured back. "Tanya wants to sleep. Tanya caught Snitch, and did all that was necessary for her to do today."

"Tanya is sounding like house elf," Kris put in.

"Kris is also sounding like house-elf, and Tanya advises that Kris leave Tanya alone," Tanya mumbled. "Wanna sleep."

"So sleep," Kris shrugged.

"Wouldn't that be rude?"

"Take a look at the Hogwarts students," Kris remarked. Tanya dutifully looked, and immediately noted that half of the students seemed to be dozing – including Ron and, to a lesser extent, Leon.

Tanya smiled. "Wake me up if anything interesting happens then," she told Kris, her eyes closing and staying that way. Kris smiled slightly as Aidan half uncurled, obviously going to protect his sleeping friend from anyone who tried to disturb her rest.

"Some lovely arguments from Saul Thorpe-Townsend of Kallaix Academy on Mandatory Magical Education … rots the brain, eh? Anyway, the next topic will be House Elf Rights, or Lack Thereof, from Hermione Granger of Hogwarts," Charlie said carefully, sounding amused, but as though he was trying to hide it.

No one moved to offer an opinion on this for a moment, then someone from Durmstrang raised a hand. "Hermione Granger, you will be first speaker, then Ivan Ekish…Ekisha… Um, Ivan of Durmstrang shall speak second."

Hermione waited impatiently for her globe to light up, and then started speaking so fast it was difficult to follow what she was saying. Tanya slept through the whole thing. Kris shook her awake a short time later – Hermione had finished her eleventh point before anyone had realized that she had reached ten.

"What happened?" Tanya slurred, half slumping against Kris's shoulder. Ax came up on her other side, snaking an arm under her shoulders to help support her. Hardly seeming to notice – and definitely beyond the point of caring, Tanya slumped the other way, and allowed him to escort her out, eyes drooping half closed again, she completely lost track of the conversation.

"Justine would have probably liked that speech … well, parts of it anyway," Kris remarked to Ax, over Tanya's sleeping head. "She would have found the wording fairly dull, but she would have _loved_ some of the points that were made – you know how she dotes on the elves at school."

"Man, that speech was hell. If I'd tried to give that to Mr. Hohnen last year, he would have docked about half the marks for lack of interesting language and flair."

"There was no sophistication," Adam loomed up behind them in a very good imitation of the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher of Kallaix Academy. Mr. Hohnen loved giving out oral assessments and essays to all of his students, right from first to final year.

"Oh there was plenty of sophistication, you heard some of them long words she was using," Saul pointed out, "There just wasn't any flair."

"Did anyone understand that speech?" Kris demanded, "Or was that just me? I mean, seriously?"

"I did," Saul protested.

"That's 'cos you're a smart ass who pretends to be stupid," Ax told him cheerfully, "I think Kris meant normal people."

"Then what was he doing talking to any of us?"

"I'm normal!" Adam protested.

"You haven't had a girlfriend for so long that I'm starting to think you lean _that way_," Jacque told Adam.

"Aw yeah, right," everyone laughed. Kris was probably the only one who noticed that Adam actually looked rather uncomfortable.

The group separated, and Ax guided Tanya downstairs, sat her down on the bed and stripped off most of her bulky outer uniform – surprisingly, he didn't even try to take off her shirt – then pulled back the covers and tucked Tanya into bed, before retreating to the doorway to just stare at her for a moment.

After a short time had passed, he turned and padded away to his own room. Unnoticed by him, Justine watched him walk away from the shadows near the stairway down. She had noticed him with Tanya, and had followed to make sure he wouldn't do anything naughty when Tanya was too tired to know what was going on.

"If you break her heart, I'll kill you. You'd best just stay away from her," Justine muttered, then went back to her own room, convinced that Tanya was, for the moment, safe.

* * *

Justine sat upright in her bed. Something was wrong. She wasn't sure what. It was something that seemed to be the air all around her. She felt … she felt _horny_, and that just wasn't like her. She was over love.

Deciding that a drink would cure it all, she stood up and made her way down to the lounge, which had a water dispenser. When she reached it, however, she discovered that she wasn't the only one awake now, seeing Ax, Kris, Tanya and Alyson where in the room already.

"Wow, it's," Kris checked his watch, "one in the morning and half of us are up already – if some of the guys back in Aussieland saw us … they would not believe their eyes."

"Yeah that's right, Mr. 'I wake up at one in the afternoon and wonder why I get called a truant,' " Justine muttered, feeling very on edge.

Tanya muttered something sleepily, but Justine wasn't sure what. "Are you awake?" she wondered.

"I don't know," Tanya replied, slurring her words dramatically.

Suddenly the air was split with a howl. "Is that _Tegan_?" Justine demanded, instantly on the alert.

"Wolf, definitely a wolf," Alyson said, "Sounds like Tegan, but she hasn't howled like that since…"

"Since last year!" Ax said. "When she was …"

"_In heat_!" Justine replied. "So _that's_ why I'm feeling so … hormonal right now."

"I don't feel any different," Ax remarked.

"Yeah, that's because you're a man-whore," Kris pointed out.

"Oh, leave him alone," Alyson remarked.

"Why? I am," Ax replied.

"And you're proud of it?"

"You should see my 'souvenir' collection," Ax replied cheekily.

"Why wouldn't he be proud? If I had had as many girls as he had, I would be too," Kris put in.

"So you're finally admitting that I've had more girls than you have?"

"There was any competition?" Justine demanded.

"That's what I thought," Alyson put in.

"Oh fine, you've had more girls than me," Kris muttered sullenly.

The howl split the air again. "Is she going to be doing that all night?" Tanya muttered blearily.

Another howl came, more masculine that time. "That was so _not_ Tegan," Justine said.

"Isn't one of the Professors here a werewolf too?" Tanya asked, opening her eyes again. "Older fellow, graying hair."

"Yeah, a _guy_ …" Kris said. "To be more to the point, there is a male werewolf also locked in the castle."

Tanya didn't get it.

"Female in heat, male near by? Surely you can't be in that much of a dark age concerning the human reproductive cycle," Ax teased Tanya quietly.

"Oh _shit!_" Justine yelled, and the group took off at a dead run for the castle.

"Tanya, we need to know what the other guy is doing – his name is Lupin, and he was a good teacher …and you didn't need to know that," Ax said.

Tanya nodded, and, with a low popping sound, she was replaced by a large bird, and took off into the air, flapping quickly to gain height.

"I so should have tried to learn that with you," Ax remarked, looking after her.

Justine replied, "We stuffed it up anyway. Becoming Animagi to keep Tegan company was a great idea, but doing the spell with someone who already _is_ an Animagus, a werewolf, and with a caster who didn't use a wand … it went a little wonky."

"Still, would have been pretty cool," Kris put in. "I mean, you were only fifteen when you did the spell – that's pretty neat."

"There was a precedent," Justine said.

"There was? Oh yeah, _The Book_," Ax said. "You guys went a long way to help your friend."

"That's what friends are for," Alyson said. She had been an Animagus since birth, so it wasn't nearly such a big thing for her.

"And like you'd toss up the chance to become an animal," Justine added.

"Yeah, I asked … but _someone_ wouldn't let me," Ax muttered.

"Think how wonky it would have gone if we'd had a sword mage as well," Justine said, "My bitch fight with you that day probably saved all our lives."

"Oh shut up," Ax muttered, as they turned down into the dungeons.

"She wasn't like this last night," Severus Snape was waiting for them, having guessed that they would turn up eventually … that, or he had been coming to get them.

"Yeah, she just went into heat," Justine told her uncle.

"Lupin's here!" Severus said, freaking out slightly in his own stoic way.

"Mmhm," Justine said, "We've sent out a scout, we'll know where he is very soon."

"He's breaking down the office door, Tanya doesn't think it's going to last much longer," Alyson reported. One of the after-effects of the Animagus spell gone wrong was the fact that while in their animal forms, the friends could communicate with one another telepathically. Being a natural Animagus, Alyson could hear them whichever form she was in.

"You sent a _human_ to check on a _werewolf_?" Severus said, now really starting to lose his cool.

"No, we sent Tanya – she's fine," Ax replied.

"Tanya is a _human_," Severus said, thinking perhaps the Aussies were missing his point entirely.

"Not right now," Kris replied.

"What do you mean by that?" Severus demanded.

Suddenly a large, pure white bird flew through the front door and dove straight for them. Severus shouted and went to try and pull Justine back, but the bird pulled up, and, just before it would have slammed into the floor, changed into Tanya.

Ax dove forward just before she changed, and ended up on the ground as she landed heavily on his chest, managing to cushion her fall.

"Nice catch," Kris offered.

"Thanks," Ax wheezed.

"We have a problem," Tanya panted, "Lupin just broke through the door."

"You're an _Animagus?_" Severus demanded, "Have you got any idea how dangerous that transformation is?"

"No, it just tickles the first few times, Sevie, don't worry," Justine told him cheerfully.

"Wait, _you're_ an Animagus as well?"

"I think he's catching on," Kris remarked dryly.

"Can this conversation wait until later, morning, if possible?" Tanya asked, "Only, there's a sex crazy male werewolf roaming the halls of Hogwarts, and I'm thinking that if there are any students around… well, it could be quite nasty."

"You, that way, you, that way," Severus said, sending Kris running in one direction and Ax in another. He then turned to Tanya, Alyson and Justine. Before he could say anything, Tanya had transformed and flapped back outside. "Where's she going?"

"To see how far Lupin's gotten. When we are animals, I can hear projected thoughts from the others," Alyson replied.

"Very well, you two, go back to the boat, you'll be safe there, I won't let the werewolf get outside," Severus replied.

Justine gave him a slightly scathing look. "Oh yes, and how are _you_ going to take on a werewolf? If you're going to try stunning, I know from experience that it doesn't work."

"Lupins taken his potion, I should be able to reason with him," Severus replied.

"Hello? _Sex crazy_ male werewolf let lose in castle with female on heat? _Not_ reasonable," Justine replied. "The air around him is probably driving him mad as we speak, all full pheromones and hormones and other nasty stuff."

"Well you couldn't either, I _might_ stand a chance," Severus replied.

"Sorry Sevie, but why don't you go to your quarters and stay there, Alyson and I can handle the werewolf, we've done it before, last time she was on heat," Justine replied, and suddenly changed form, darting down in the dungeons.

"Where's she going?" Severus asked.

"To check on Tegan," Alyson replied.

Severus looked after the creature that his niece had turned into. "She really could do it, couldn't she? Take on a werewolf?"

"Yes, and she will. With my help, she will even win," Alyson replied, "Now why don't you do what Justine told you, and barricade yourself in your office – she'd _kill_ me if anything happened to you."

With that, Alyson also took on the form of a unicorn and galloped up the stairs, no doubt following Tanya's instructions to find, and delay, the werewolf. A moment later, Justine raced past him, heading after the unicorn. Severus shook his head and followed them.

* * *

Kris and Ax met up a short time later on the third floor of the castle, Kris looking more than a little lost. Ax was looking slightly pissed off. "Are all Slytherins that fucking cocky … and that stupid? I'm all like 'Go back to your common room, you're about to die,' and he's like, 'I'm a big bad Slytherin, I can take anything on'. So I'm like, 'What about a giant sex-crazed werewolf?' and he's like 'huh?' … not my fault, had to curse the idiot."

"Did you leave him in the hallway?" Kris asked nervously.

"Do I look stupid? If it had been Malfoy, I probably would have, but I dragged this guy into a closet and locked the door."

"So tomorrow morning he's coming out of the closet?" Kris asked, and then started laughing at his own bad joke. Suddenly the window behind them exploded inwards as a white bird once again crashed into the floor, bleeding from the glass cuts.

The bird became Tanya. With her change back to human form, most of the smaller wounds healed, but there was a huge cut across her cheek. Ax and Kris both stepped forward in concern. "Are you alright? You could have screeched or something, and we'd have broken the window for you," Kris said.

" Werewolf at twelve o'clock," Tanya replied, pointing tiredly down the corridor. "I think we need a closet or something, Ax."

"There's one … _this way_!" he yelled and took off. Everyone could hear the giant footfalls of the werewolf running down the hall. Ax suddenly pulled them all to a stop and dragged them into a hidden room, which was a little small for three people, and closed the door behind him.

"Man, this is like, the perfect spot for snogging," Kris said, lighting his wand and looking around.

"Why do you think I know where it is?" Ax demanded.

"Oh my god – _bad_ mental image," Tanya replied, and looked in repulsion at the surfaces of the room, backing towards the door. Then they heard the werewolf approaching, but there was something coming from the other side as well.

"Oh shit, Tegan didn't get out, did she?" Kris demanded.

"Those are _hooves_, idiot," Ax returned. "It's Alyson."

"Justine's with her, they were coming when I found you," Tanya put in, and at that moment, there was a roar from outside. "Big black panther meets big black werewolf … who will win?"

"Add big white unicorn to big black panther and it's not that hard to figure out," Ax replied.

He lit up his sword. "Is that really a good idea?" Tanya asked.

"You can't see the light from the hall, from outside, it's as if this room doesn't exist," Ax replied, "They can't hear us, or see anything. Now let me have a look at your face.

"No, let me have a look at it, I know how to heal, remember?" Kris said, "You may see me as big and dumb, but I know stuff – I was _'this_' close to being in McEwen, but then the Steelwell dragon won their little bitchfight."

"Fine," Ax reluctantly shuffled aside, then around, then kind of backwards to give Kris better access to Tanya. Kris examined the wound, and then tapped his wand to it, and the flow of blood stopped and the remaining blood disappeared. A moment later dressings appeared to hold the wound closed.

"I'll leave the actual healing of it to Madam Pomfrey, she knows what she's doing more than I do. I might be willing to try a spell I don't know too well on a house elf, but I'm not going to try it one of my friends," Kris said.

"Better not let the Hogwarts Head Girl hear you say that," Ax remarked. "She started a _group_ to try and get rights for House Elves – I remember, I was here. Good thing she didn't know me too well, otherwise I'd have to have joined as well."

Tanya smiled, "Something I missed from earlier tonight?" she asked.

"I wouldn't call it 'missing'," Kris replied. "If I could have slept, I would have – but it was too damn early."

"I feel for you," Ax replied.

"Dude – that's just sick when taken the wrong way," Kris replied.

"It's sick that you could take it another way," Ax replied.

Tanya looked towards the hallway. "God, it sounds nasty out there."

The conversation ceased as everyone listened. The sound of snarls and tearing flesh reached their ears all to easily. The sound of large, fleshy things striking the walls came twice, then the sound of hooves striking the ground loud and whinny of fear.

"Alyson," Ax hissed, almost ready to throw himself into the fight to protect the innocent girl who had found his heart and dug through all of the layers around it to reach it, and she had stuck there. Ax remembered the first time he had seen Alyson in Hogwarts. From that moment, and all the other ones since, he had felt that he really could be a better person – especially if he was near her.

He knew that it was not love – she was the only girl he had never wanted to have – but it was something equally powerful. Even more powerful than they were when they were together. If he was touching her, he had more power than he could have dreamed of to use. He had used it more than once to convince those who thought a unicorn would be easy prey that it wasn't a good idea. She was like his rechargable battery pack.

"No Ax – she had Justine, and it would be suicide to go out there now," Tanya said quickly. "Alyson can take care of herself. No werewolf would dare to harm a unicorn, even one as crazy as Lupin is now."

Ax relaxed and stepped back from the wall-door that would take him outside. "I know, but Justine's out there too," he said quietly, "I've been protecting her for years, it's hard to step back and leave someone else to do it for me."

"I know, but we have to," Tanya replied. "I would rather be out there helping them too."

Then came the sound of running –_human_- footsteps. "Oh shit – I hope that's not a student," Kris remarked.

"No, I don't think it is," Tanya replied.

"The teachers probably," Ax offered his opinion.

"_Stupefy_!" several voices yelled as one.

"If there's enough of them casting the spell, it just might work," Ax remarked.

A loud, definitely not Justine snarl came from outside. "They don't have enough now," Tanya stated.

"We have to help," Ax said immediately.

"If we all cast the spell as well, will it work?" Kris asked.

"Yes," Ax replied. "We can do this."

"OK, let's try," Kris said.

They threw the door open as the werewolf passed them to head for the teachers. The first thing they noticed was that the huge black panther that was Justine was very badly hurt, the second was that there were ten teachers with a very angry werewolf heading towards them.

Ax held up one hand, three fingers visible, then took one down, then another, and one that last one, everyone present yelled, "_Stupefy_!" Including Justine, who had managed to resume human form, and Alyson, who had changed the moment that she had seen her friends come out of the wall.

Fifteen bolts of red light shot into the werewolf. Lupin tottered for a moment, then collapsed, the force of the spells irresistible, even for the werewolf within him.

"Justine!" Severus leapt over the werewolf to land beside her.

"Sevie," she murmured, then started to fall. He immediately reached out to catch her.

"Justine, look at me," he tried to keep her awake. "You have to stay lucid."

"Severus – it hurts. I faint when I get hurt – it's just a me thing. Sorry I wasn't strong enough," she closed her eyes and went limp.

"Severus, you should take your niece to the hospital wing _now_," Dumbledore advised.

"I know that!" Severus replied, already walking.

"We'll come too," Ax said immediately. "Alyson, do you want me to carry you?"

"Ax, my _arm_ is bleeding, why would I need to be carried?" Alyson asked, gesturing to the open wound that was leaking silver blood down her clothes.

"Because he is chivalrous and manly," Kris replied, slipping a hand under Tanya's arm to guide her towards the hospital wing. Ax padding alongside Alyson, looking most put out that the only females who needed his help were already being helped by someone else. He shrugged and settled for watching Tanya's butt as she walked.

Before them all Severus walked, robes billowing around him, being stained red by the blood that was flowing from Justine's many wounds. His niece had taken on a werewolf and won, but at a cost. He just hoped he reached the hospital wing in time to make sure that the cost was not too high. She was the only light for a man like him.

The group burst into the hospital wing, and Madam Pomfrey emerged from her office, blinking tiredly, "What's going – my god Severus that girl is dying!"

"How positive," Kris remarked. "You'd make a really good counsellor."

"Put her on that bed now, Severus," Madam Pomfrey said, completely in her element. Severus went to set Justine down carefully down on the bed, while the nurse retreated to her office to get potions.

When she returned, she noticed the cut on Tanya's cheek, and waved her wand, muttering something. The cut was immediately healed. "Get her into a bed and let her rest," she ordered Kris, then turned to Justine.

Kris immediately led Tanya over to one of the beds and tucked her in, then lay down on top of the blankets and put his arms around her. Tanya was asleep almost immediately and didn't notice. Kris himself almost immediately started drifting off.

Ax watched jealously from Alyson's side, and waited until Madam Pomfrey had a moment free from trying to heal Justine, then pointed out Alyson's wound.

Madam Pomfrey tapped it once with her wand, healing it immediately, then noticed Kris and Tanya. "Kristopher Crompton what in the world do you think you're doing?" she demanded shrilly.

Kris opened a sleepy eye, "Shh, you'll wake Tanya," he replied. "And I thought she needed a hug – she's had a bit of a tough night you know."

"Fine," Madam Pomfrey turned away.

Ax looked at Justine, and immediately realised that he wasn't going to be sleeping in the same bed as her – not only was her uncle standing protectively beside the bed, there were potions all over the place to make sure she was fine.

"Aly?" he asked hopefully.

Alyson sighed and shuffled over, patting the bed with her good hand. Happily, Ax jumped over and settled on the bed beside her.

Madam Pomfrey looked on the verge of telling them off, but Severus Snape – surprisingly- shook his head in a negative. Well, if the Potions Master didn't mind, she wouldn't protest it. She walked over to tell him what he would need to do for his niece for the rest of the night, guessing correctly that he would have no intention of sleeping, or letting her care for Justine now that immediate crisis was over.

"I should like to speak with your niece in the morning," Dumbledore said quietly, "If she is recovered enough."

"I should like to speak with her too," Severus replied. "I will see you then."

* * *

_Sorry again to all those looking forward to some more Harry, but next chapter is Wolfmoons and she'll shove him in loads for sure! Thankyou to all those who read this chapter, please review. I'll give you a cookie!_

The Evil Percussionist - Your so Cool! Thankyou for everything you do to make our story readable!

The Evil Percussionist - You reveiwed this chapter twice - so um, twice the thanks!

Alaranth-88 - Hey, Thaks for reviewing. I think the breaking the bludger was a me thing, I break everything in sport, but I can play soccer in stilletto's so I dont care (impertinant glare). Its great to have an Aussir reader! Aussie, Aussie, Aussie – OI OI OI

Moonshadow 10 - HI! (HUGS) thankyou for reveiwing hun, glad you liked it (happyness)

Ava Munroe - Draco was a naughty naughty boy, and he hurt Justine good, thus the Aussies are after him. Don't worry, he gets his own back! Sorry about the lack of Harry, as I said, this started as a two page fuller and turned into this sooo, bear with us…

Dark672 - OOOOhHHHH yeah do they put some pain on us, 'specially Draco... (Princess shuts up before she gives stuff away...) And plus, it's a race to the end of the hunt to see who wins... (big grin)

Queen of the Jungle - Yeah, the end of that chapter was inspired by me watching way too much Monty Python and Drinking Syrupy goodness. Sugar rush - funny scene, the two go hand in hand. grin thankyou so much for reading hun!

Gabbie - (Grin) im glad your interested in Justine's past, that comes up again soon, big fun! Im so glad you like the Llysanyin's, we have pictures coming to the website, speaking of which – **_EVERYONE GO TO THE_** _**WEBSITE!**_ Your Loki sounds so cute, I didn't think of changing the spelling… So you liked the winky scene? I loved writing that, I used the cactus line from a play I was in…And thanx for saying such nice things but the quiddich! The friendship thing was a bit fast, but I wanted to get it out of the way… Thankyou for reading though, and all your nice comments!

So again, i thank all who read and encourage you to go to the website, i wrote and illustrated tons of stuff like all the newspaper articles we mention... Love and Kisses - Princess


	8. Distractions

_This one's for Hexe. Man, how much do you rock?Our wonderfull fan who joined Gaia to meet us. We love you and thank you so much for reading the story, chat to us on Gaia again soon ok? (Princess gives Hexe a hug, and Wolfmoon grins)_

_We promised more Harry, thus we give you naked Saul. Dont ask, it works._

* * *

Chapter Eight:**_ Distractions_**

Justine opened her eyes in the morning and looked around the hospital wing. Her uncle was dozing in the chair beside her bed; she could see him easily from where she lay. Carefully Justine pushed herself up, and quickly realised that her left arm hurt like hell.

Once she was leaning back against the pillows – trying not to make a noise and disturb her uncle – she looked around the hospital wing, and had a lot of trouble not bursting into laughter. Kris and Tanya were lying on one bed – Kris was flat on his back and snoring gently, and Tanya was lying, half spread over him, with her head on his chest, being lifted and raised as Kris snored. Justine was amused to note that Tanya was snoring also.

Then there were Ax and Alyson, both of whom were lying on their sides, facing one another. Alyson's head was burrowed into Ax's shoulder and they looked extremely peaceful. Justine continued to look around the room, wondering what had woken her up.

It was then that she saw Ginny Weasley standing just inside the door, trying hard not to laugh. Ginny looked at Justine. Justine looked at Ginny. Both of them burst in rather loud laughter, and managed to wake everyone else in the hospital wing.

Tanya jerked awake, realised how she was positioned, and immediately tried to roll away, and ended up tumbling straight onto the ground. Ax and Alyson woke up much more peacefully. Alyson looked blearily at Ax, silver-blond hair falling around her shoulders in a state of disarray. "You have a very comfortable shoulder, you know that?" she asked.

"I've been told that before," Ax remarked. "Quite a few times, actually."

"Ever had the same person tell you twice?" Kris joked.

"Of course not," Ax replied. "You only give them one chance."

Severus was already fussing over Justine, making sure she was still OK. She was slapping him away, trying to get up. "We have the hunt today. I have to get up, I have to see to Nubie, I have to get dressed …" Justine was saying.

"No! Young lady you are staying _right_ there until Madam Pomfrey's checked you out," Severus replied firmly, then noticed Ginny standing in the doorway.

"What do you want Weasley?" he demanded.

"What in the world did you guys do to yourselves?" Ginny demanded.

"I SAID WHAT DO YOU WANT?" Severus roared, losing his temper because Ginny hadn't answered. "HOW DARE YOU BE INSULENT AND NOT ANSWER?"

Outside, the McEwen dragon roared, sensing more than one of her children in distress.

"Leave the adopted Aussie alone Severus – she's cool," Kris remarked. "And _we_ didn't do it to ourselves. Lupin did it to us."

"Professor _Lupin_? But it was the last night of the full moon last night!" Ginny cried in obvious distress. "He didn't bite you did he?" she looked at Justine in worry, but there was no fear in her eyes.

"You didn't hear any of this Weasley," Severus interrupted. "Get what you came here and go. Forget any of this happened."

Ginny looked at him for a moment, then nodded. She walked over to the office and spoke briefly with Madam Pomfrey, and then left the hospital wing with only a single backward glance.

Justine watched the girl leave, and wondered if she had been looking at _Kris_.

"Professor Dumbledore wants to see you," Severus interrupted her thoughts. "I think he would like to see all of you, actually."

"Oh fine, but let me go down to the cruiser and get properly dressed first, will you?" Justine said.

"Let's just get this over with," Kris replied.

Justine shrugged, "Fine," she replied and stood up, waving a hand to call her dressing gown to her. The group of Australians followed Severus from the room and through the confusing jumble of corridors that Tanya doubted she would ever get used to.

Suddenly they could hear people coming from up ahead. Justine looked down at what she was wearing. She hoped this would _not_ be Draco Malfoy, as she was only wearing her underwear and a nearly see-through dressing gown …

Around the corner walked not only Draco but also Harry Potter and … this was getting steadily worse. Ron Weasley also.

* * *

"So, how do you think we'll go in the Time Trials today?" Ron asked.

"We'll win," Draco replied.

"Are you sure? Those magazine articles said that … certain Australians … were rather good," Harry remarked.

"We'll do great," Draco replied as they turned the corner and froze.

Ron chocked, Draco's expression closed, hiding emotion. Harry hid a smile. Justine was probably the oddest Australian of the lot. She was wearing black underwear and a white, fairly see-through silk dressing gown … and high heels. That girl was the queen of inappropriate footwear.

"Good morning," Tanya Bussa said evenly, also from a state of slight undress. She was, however, wearing actual clothes – a jumper and the skirt she had been wearing the night before.

"What happened to you?" Ron asked.

"Werewolves, midnight, flying, ouchies … don't ask," Tanya replied, touching her cheek, where there was a fading patch of pink, newly healed skin.

"Justine, you're arm looks really bad, have you seen Madam Pomfrey?" Ron asked.

Draco shot him a murderous glance, the revelation from the day before that she had been with Ron _before_ him was still getting to him.

"Been there, done that," Justine replied, as Kris, Ax, Alyson and Severus walked around the corner.

"Move along," Severus said coolly, and brushed past Harry, Ron and Draco, just as Hermione came around the corner.

"Hi Harry! I was looking for you," she said, and then spotted Ax. "_Hi_," she added. Ax didn't wear tops to bed, and was dressed in nothing more than a hastily thrown on outer robe and black silk pants. Kris was wearing boxer shorts and a blue shirt with "Wollongong Warriors" written across it. "Kris … I can see Ginny's attraction."

"_What_?" Ron yelped.

"What?" Draco drawled.

"What?" Kris asked, delightedly.

"I didn't say that!" Gasped Hermione.

Harry smiled faintly, as did Tanya. Justine shook her head and strode after Severus. "If we can move on, I would like to get dressed at _some_ point this morning," she remarked. "Ron, Harry, Hermione, don't forget the party tonight – and make sure Ginny doesn't forget either."

The three Hogwarts students nodded quickly as the Australian group swept past them. "Party?" Draco asked.

* * *

"Ice Mice," Severus drawled superciliously at the ugly gargoyle that guarded the Headmaster's office.

"What is it with you guys and passwords?" Tanya asked. "We don't _do_ them at Kallaix! Just a tap of your wand and Bobs your uncle!"

"You have an Uncle named Bob?" Severus enquired.

Justine rolled her eyes, "It's a _saying_," she replied, and then started to explain it as the gargoyle leapt aside.

"I'll look forward to an explanation later – right now I think we should concentrate," Severus replied.

"Why? We haven't done anything wrong, in fact, we probably saved loads of lives," Justine pointed out.

"Lives that would not have been in danger if you hadn't brought your friend along," Severus pointed out. "Nothing against Tegan, of course, but that's what people are going to say."

"Then people are going to die," Ax said.

"No, then people are close minded fools," Justine corrected him.

"And are therefore going to die," Ax reiterated.

"We will all die eventually. To the well organised mind, death is but the next great adventure, as I am quite fond of saying," the door to Dumbledore's office had opened, and the man himself was standing in the doorway, watching them. "I must admit, I'm not accustomed to students coming to my office at six thirty in the morning …"

"Well, you asked us to come," Justine said. "Or so Sevie told us."

Severus gave Justine a _look_, conveying the fact that she should be calling Severus now, as there were people other than the Australian contingent present. "Sorry," she muttered.

"Sevie? Delightful nickname I'm sure," Dumbledore remarked. "A better one than many of the others that have been awarded him."

"I'm sure my various nicknames are fascinating to you, Headmaster, but I must point out that this was not the purpose of our visit to your office this morning, and I believe my niece would like to get dressed and get ready for the Hunt, which begins in an hour and a half," Severus interrupted before Dumbledore could wander too badly off topic.

"Of course. Miss Snape, I believe you never registered when you became an Animagus," Dumbledore said clearly.

"Neither did I, so sue us," Tanya muttered. She was _not_ a morning person, especially not when mornings were so god damn cold!

"Whilst I have acclimatised to the British temperatures, most of my countrymen and women have not," Justine put in. "Therefore I must apologies for any rudeness from any of them over the course of the meeting."

"How well spoken your niece is, Sevie," Dumbledore remarked. Severus glared alternately at Justine and Dumbledore, the former of whom just shrugged slightly. "But, Miss Bussa, did you imply in your former statement that you are also an Animagus?"

"We found this old diary in our school library that told us about a former case in which three friends discovered that a fourth member of their group was a werewolf. They became Animagi to keep the fourth member company. The author laid down explicit instructions as to how one was to accomplish this feat. As Alyson already had a head start, and Justine was a Magi, it sent the spell kind of wonky … but the girls accomplished it non the less," Kris spoke up.

Dumbledore got a look of interest in his eyes, then said, "So exactly how many of your party are Animagi? Miss Deveréaux is of course registered," he said.

"Four," Justine replied. "Myself, a panther, Tanya, a Letterwing Kite, she's our scout, Tegan has become an Animagus-wolf as well as a werewolf, maybe we shouldn't have included her in the spell, and Alyson is, of course, a unicorn."

"I see … and why was it that you didn't see fit to inform the Ministry of this?" Dumbledore asked.

"Dude, they did it in my basement," Kris replied, "I am the Minister of Magic's son, I think it stands to reason that I live with my dad, therefore he _knew_ about it … we just never told anyone else," Kris replied.

"Did he require you to register, are you?"

"We never told anyone else," Kris reiterated, "But an authority does know about it! See, I'm great with loop holes," he added to Justine, "I've told you this before, but did you believe me? There's no way you can be charged."

"You certainly seem to have done your research, Mr. Crompton," Dumbledore asked.

"The legal requirement of performing the Animagus spell is to notify an authority, as is laid down by the Australian Witches Constitution of 1912, so this whole 'Animagus Registration Division' are up themselves – any authority can be chosen, they just like to think it has to be them." Kris quoted Saul.

"You really _are_ your fathers son, I'd never noticed," Ax remarked.

Dumbledore, on the other hand, seemed to find Kris's use of law's as an arguement quite amusing

"Dude, Minister of Magic's son," Kris reiterated to Ax. "I _have_ to know the law, otherwise how I am supposed to get around my old man when I've done something he perceives as wrong."

"You see the bitch fights they've had before," Justine shook her head sadly, " I swear, you are going to end up a lawyer honey."

"I was thinking mega time Quidditch star … but lawyer will work," Kris replied.

"Well, your dad was a Quidditch star, so you have a precedent," Justine said. "You can be anything!"

"Even a porn star?" Ax asked.

"I'm sure Mr. Crompton's future is a delightful topic of conversation, and if he choses to be a porn star we will all simply have to respect his decision," Dumbledore remarked somewhat blandly "But this conversation at least convinces me that we don't have an Animagus epidemic on our hands, as i can assume from your comments that this - diary, has been kept to yourselves."

"Well obviously – Greg made us promise not to tell anyone else about it," Justine replied, laughing quietly as she remembered that day.

"_Geggly, can we use your basement?" Justine asked her adopted the uncle, the Minister of Magic, with pleading eyes._

"_What for? It's not the full moon yet," Greg replied, glancing at Tegan._

"_Something to help her when she changes," Justine replied._

"_Which would be?"_

"_Um…" all of them rolled their eyes off to the side._

"_If it's illegal, just don't tell anyone else about it, definitely no Kris involved, and don't tell anyone that I gave you permission," Greg replied. "Other than that, go ahead!"_

"_Thanks Greg!" Justine said, while Kris swore because his father wouldn't let him be in on it._

"That has set my mind at rest," Dumbledore remarked, "And once again, I find myself realising that you are innocent when many would pronounce you guilty. I also must thank you for protecting the students, though in future, if you could refrain from knocking students out and locking in the closets, I would be much in your debt." At the last comment Justine detected a slight tone of 'Do it again and pay.'

Ax and Kris were trying not to laugh. They were failing miserably.

"Ok, let's go get to back to the boat, I need to get dressed for the Hunt before we go to breakfast – there probably won't be time afterwards after all."

"At least I got a night off the boat – that was a relief," Alyson remarked as they headed out of the office, Alyson seemed to be the only one of the group realising just how easy Dumbledore was going on them, and was thankfull, but wary.

* * *

Wearing her Riding uniform of cream jodhpurs and white dress shirt, Justine entered the Great Hall for breakfast, already ready to go to the Time Trials. She had pulled on her shiny knee high black riding boots and grabbed her black riding jacket and crisp, silky white scarf which she was carrying draped over one arm, making sure her emerald cuff links and scarf pin were in the jacket pocket.

Justine carefully hung her jacket on the bench to make sure it didn't wrinkle, she was the only one of the Hunt team who was at breakfast so far - Alyson was waiting for Tegan to get ready after the night last night.

Justine glanced up at the staff table and grinned wickedly, Lupin was sitting there. She managed to catch his eye, and held up her arm, pointing to the still bandages wound, a hurt expression on her face. He looked totally mortified, and Justine wondered if teasing him was really a good idea ... oh well, it didn't really matter. Tegan hadn't even arrived yet ...

The doors opened and Alyson and Tegan walked into the room, Alyson's white mane of hair tied back out of her face, her riding uniform spotless. Tegan was looking a little dishevelled, and most of the Hogwarts students put this down to stress, though a select group of students knew the truth.

Tegan looked up at the teachers table and spotted Lupin, with a wicked grin, she blew a kiss in his direction. Lupin covered his eyes with one hand and stared pointedly at the ground, his mortified expression returning full strength.

"That wasn't very nice" Tanya remarked as Tegan flopped down at the table.

"Eh, what are you going to do about it? Besides, it's sooo much fun! The potential for teasing, embarrassing ..."

"Alright alright, we get the point. We do not need hear the story of a werewolf's love life - besides, he's like, three times your age" Saul remarked. "I know some guys would do anything to get a girl, any girl, but that is really just SAD."

"I think he's closer to twice my age actually" Tegan said, giving Lupin a considering look. Lupin caught it, blushed pink and hid his face again. "Werewolves often age quite quickly, or appear to do so."

"Dude, his hair is almost fully grey" Kris said.

"Or appear to do so" Tegan reiterated.

"Oh, I getcha" Kris nodded.

"Besides, some people, Muggles especially, go grey at thirty" Tanya put in.

"I said I got it" Kris repeated.

"Break it up guys, just eat" Saul advised. "And you" he looked at Tegan"No more talk of kinky werewolf sex lives - we AREN'T interested."

"You sure about that? I caught a weird expression on your face when they were talking ..." Ax said"Sure you wouldn't like to try a werewolf one day? I mean, it's pretty much as good as you're going to get - nothing against you Tegan, but I'm sure some of those chicks are VICIOUS."

Saul made a gagging face"Ax, that's just NASTY. I know you've had no luck in your sex life recently, but that's not reason to bitch about everyone elses" with that, he took a huge bite of bacon, closing the subject. No one tried to speak with Saul when he was eating - it was bad luck.

* * *

Justine entered the riding arena and walked to where her horse Anubis was waiting to be ridden, his shining black polished saddle and bridle already on. Isis and Loki were also seemingly ready. Tegan and Alyson were standing tending to their saddles; both wearing the riding uniform also, though Justine noticed they both had already put on their coats and scarves, probably to fight the English wind.

Kallaix was set up in one of eight purple tents to one side of the arena. Inside Jacque was charming all of her equipment with burglar-resisting and anti-theft charms. Kris, Ax, Jeffery, Saul, Tanya and Adam were all prepared to cheer, holding 'K' flags.

"Anubis, lets show them all why they need to be so scared of us today okay" Justine said as she stroked his silky cheek. "Honestly, we've got this in the bag, lets show off a little, thus Draconic abilty is allowed ok?"

"A little cocky wouldn't you say" Alyson asked coming over and grinning, "Apparently Daphne and Pansy are good."

Justine's eyebrows shot up. "Did you just stick up for Pansy"

"God no" Alyson exclaimed "I was merely pointing out the fact that Daphne, as cocky and bitchy as she is, may think she can give us a run for our money."

"Not a chance" Tegan said as she approached.

"Ladies" Justine said as she finished dressing"And Nubie, I propose that was beat them magnificently for fun, recreation if you will. It's for their own good."

* * *

The Judges for the event were Albus Dumbledore; Daphne's mother Emmaline, who was the British champion in her day, and Madam Maxime, whom Justine had met during the Tri-Wizard tournament in fourth year.

Dumbledore got to his feet and his voice was magnified across the arena. "Welcome to the Hunt!" and everyone began to clap. Anubis stamped his front horned hooves on the ground.

"You're meant to be a normal horse already, act clueless" Tegan muttered.

"The schools will be called to complete the course, to gain points overall, based on time and precision of which there is two portions. The first section requires the rider to locate ten markers and the second to complete an obstacle course. Each school will compete on by one, called at random by our impartial chooser, the sorting hat." There was scattered applause at this.

"The Unicorn Hunt is one of the pivotal events in the united youth conference calendar, and the press will no doubt be at our next event, as I must warn you. During the event, no school may leave the allotted area within the forest, and the course will light up if a section is not completed. Good Luck Hogwarts, and now as a completely unbiased judge I would now like to take this opportunity to wish you all the best"

The sorting hat suddenly bellowed "Villefort!" and it was on.

The first three schools to compete were nothing out of the hat. Justine had nothing against them of course, but they were in fact school competition level riders.

Then the Egyptians, Thundreds, rode and Justine sat up to watch. They were riding some of the most beautiful purebred Arabs she had ever seen, pure liquid muscle. They brought home a great time in the first half of the race, where the schools were sent into a set portion of the forest and had to find ten tokens that were hidden amongst the trees. They then re-entered the forest to take the obstacle course part of the time trial, and again performed wonderfully.

The fifth school was Hogwarts. Daphne really had some good skills. Pansy could ride, but she looked terrified and relied hard on her horse's mouth. Ginny was _good_, Justine could tell why they had pulled in the sixth year to be their third. Daphne pulled home a spectacular time for them in the first portion of the event, Justine watching her closely when she could for weaknesses or faults in her technique. In the second portion they flew to the entrance of the obstacle course so well that Justine had the distinct impression Daphne had been practising on it. Pansy's body language was giving it away; she wasn't directing, just asking the horse to move faster. The _horse _knew the course. "How deliriously weak."

They beat the Egyptian score by a few points and Justine was in some way of the inclination that the Egyptians were probably more deserving of the win.

Seventh in line was the Kallaixians. With Kris's help Justine hoisted herself up onto Anubis, moving to the line, he was one of the few males Anubis dealt with. "Good luck Bunny," he said, walking back to the tent. "On the count of three" Dumbledore announced. "One, two... THREE" and Anubis was off, Justine immediately adjusting to his massive gait.

Justine could tell that Alyson and Tegan were right on her tail, and raising one hand she gestured that she was going to make a fast right when she entered the trees. The Tokens were small, but emitted an intense blue light, easily discernable against the trees. Tegan took the left flank, and Alyson fell in on the right, each weaving along parallel to Justine as they covered the area.

"Count!" Justine yelled, "I've got five!"

"Two." Tegan returned, Alyson, "Two, hang on I see the last one!"

Alyson suddenly let go of her reigns and flipped her leg up and over the saddle to be only holding on by one foot in the stirrup and an arm draped across the saddle. She gasped the last token, which was very low to the ground, between two trees.

"Let's move, it's been what, two minutes?"

They thundered back out of the tree's shocking everyone with the speed of their return and as they crossed the finish line, the line turned green to signify the presence of all ten markers.

"Well done, Miss Snape," Dumbledore said, "I believe although it is not confirmed that that was a Hogwarts course record time. Are you prepared to go in for to Obstacle course?"

"Let's rock and roll!" Yelled Justine and quite suddenly music rolled out of the Kallaix Tent, Jacque grinning and bobbing her head along with the heavy beat.

"GO!"

Justine was off, and Jacque traced her on the plasma flat screen in front of her. Damn Justine could ride. Anubis wasn't even fazed by anything that was thrown at him, Isis seemed to be having fun and Loki was skipping and jumping and having a great time. They were moving through at roughly a third faster so far than any other school, and were increasing their speed continually.

At the bottom of her screen the screen tab titled 'scores' began to flash blue. "Oi, guys," she said as she opened the menu. "Surprise, surprise. Justine has pulled into first place, a comfortable one point four minutes in the lead for the first section. It seems Greengrass tried to give her a penalty for the fact the horses are Llysanyins, but this Maxime chick has challenged this, and it was dissipated."

"YEAH!" Kris and Ax threw their hands in the air. "Was there ever any doubt?"

Jacque's attention was back on the screen. Justine was still maintaining a strong lead, according to her schematics, but The Egyptians from Thundreds had done this section, the sand trap, with more efficiency. Anubis's size was giving him leverage on the sand, and the agility of Isis and Loki was a definite plus.

They were bringing it home.

Justine came thundering into view, Isis and Loki right behind, and the boys and Tanya began to bellow. The time ended when the last horse in the team had crossed the line. Isis crossed first, her sleek lines and strong muscled body built for flat speed. Anubis crossed next, Justine bringing him around, while he roared in triumph, (scaring quite a few students.) Loki stopped. She just ran to about a meter from the line and stopped dead.

"Tegan, MOVE!" Justine yelled, pulling Anubis around.

"Loki, DON'T be such a NAG! Get across the line NOW" Tegan yelled.

"Justine you've only got thirty more seconds of lead!" Jacque yelled. Loki stepped forward and daintily crossed the line.

Tegan leapt down and dragged her horse over to the tent. "HOW DARE YOU!" she yelled. Justine winced; she wouldn't want to be in Loki's shoes right now. Sure the horse was mischievous, but seriously, why do this on the last night of the moon? Tegan was grumpy as. "You are not getting any treats, at all, for the rest of the conference, and no apples, and you'll be lucky if I _ever_ give you molasses _ever _again!

Loki's jaw dropped as if to say _what?_ But Tegan had continued "and your grounded to the stables when your not being ridden", _you cant do this mummy it was just a joke! _"And in training, Justine can ride you" Loki looked at Justine perched on Anubis holding her wicked looking emerald encrusted handled crop. _Good lord no! Mummy, don't do this to me! I love you, please no! She'll kill me, she's used to Anubis, and she can wear out even him mummy noooooooo…_although Loki didnt speak her expressions spoke volumes.

Justine chucked as Tegan turned her back on the pleading horse. "And I'm not talking to you." A stable hand came to look after Loki.

"Guy's final scores are in!" Jacque yelled across to them.

Dumbledore stood and raised his hands. "In third place with a wonderful score, Thundreds! Wonderful, yes. Second place Hogwarts! Very well done I'm sure! And in first place Kallaix Academy, who took it away - the best score ever recorded on this track! Amazing work, very well done!"

Justine jumped down of Anubis and was swept up into Kris's arms, then swung onto Ax's shoulder where she perched, one arm in the air. When she had been hugged and congratulated all round she broke away to go to the Thundreds table, where similar celebrations were continuing. She walked over to the Head girl and held her hand out. "Your horses are beautiful and it truly was a pleasure competing against you." She said.

The dark haired girl smiled and returned the hand. "As was competing with you. I envy your Llysanyin."

"Oh, if you ever want a ride just holler, he looks fearsome, but he's a big kitten really. He was a birthday gift from my Uncle." Justine grinned. "Maybe we can do lunch or something."

Tegan glowered at Loki, who was still looking sheep faced from her embarrassing scene earlier. Everyone gave Tegan an hour till she gave in. She was a sucker for animals. She turned the hose on the horse to mask the softening in her expression. "Take that you evil beastie!" She yelled as she hosed down the naughty horses sweaty face.

Tanya looked over to where the stable hand was removing Anubis's huge saddlery and bridle. He was behaving well, and Tanya could see it was because it was a girl, "hang on…" she muttered as a piece of auburn hair, remarkably like her own, only darker, fell free. "Ginny? What are you doing acting as a stable hand."

Ginny turned and smiled sarcastically. "It appears Daphne heard about me being on your boat, and she said I was fraternising with the enemy, and I've been given stable hand duties as a punishment."

"Good lord, that malevolent BITCH!" yelled Tanya, causing the Aussies to group together.

* * *

"YOU BITCH!" Justine screamed, glaring Daphne into a corner. "YOU FUCKING BITCH!" Then she turned her attention a cowering Pansy. "YOU LITTLE FUCKING CHEATING BITCH! You've been training Pansy on the fucking course! You bastards aren't supposed to have ANY advantage over the rest of the Schools!"

Ginny was standing a little way away from the brits, still clutching Anubis' huge saddle to her chest and quivering slightly. Justine's temper was a fearsome thing, even when it wasn't directed at you. You could really see the family resemblance coming out.

"And look at Ginny! She's just had to ride in this gruelling race, and now you're making her unsaddle OUR horses!" Tanya snarled. "You don't fucking deserve to have her in your "elite" little club. She's so much better than that. She's an AUSSIE!"

"AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE!" Kris thundered as loud as he could, grabbing the saddle from Ginny. The rest of the Aussies, Ginny included, punched their arms in the air and responded with a boisterous, "OI OI OI!"

"You dirty traitor, you're a _Hogwarts_ competitor, how dare you!" Pansy snarled.

Everyone turned to stare at Ginny, who's expression hardened, she seemed to be working hard to keep her temper in check, striding over to stand with Kris and Ax, who both rested an arm gently on her shoulders.

"I'm afraid she an Aussie now, and none of us will hear a word against _any_ of our own, so shut your big flapping mouth, Pansy." Alyson put in scornfully.

"HOW DARE YOU SPEAK TO ME…" Pansy began to bellow, but it was short lived as Saul and Jeffery both stepped into the forefront quite peacefully.

"Pansy, I believe you were told to shut that disgusting orifice of yours, so politely do so, you're polluting the air with your verbal diarrhoea, and I really can't take any more of your unsightly behaviour. Are you retarded or something? If you were a dog I would have had you put down." Jeffery quipped scathingly, glaring hatred at Pansy. Even the Kallaix students were a little surprised - Jeffery rarely lost his temper, but when he did ... he went all the way.

Seamus, Neville and Ron arrived just to hear the end of this speech and immediately jumped to the conclusion that the Aussies were picking fights. Again.

"Now listen hear, I may not see eye to eye with Daphne and Pansy on everything, but you cant go around calling our schools ladies such awful names," Seamus began. "And you've gone and stolen Ginny again!"

"Again? We didn't do the kidnapping last time you did! Stolen Ginny my ass, she's ours!" Tegan quipped.

"Guy's lets go back to the castle." Ron seemed to have assessed the situation, and was looking somewhere over behind the group. "I don't know what caused this bitch fight, but Ginny is safe with the Australians. Justine are we still on for lunch?" He asked as he passed the girl following his friends up to the castle.

Justine turned a luminous smile onto Ron, "Yep, let's say 12:30 at the Gryffindor table?"

"Oh, I'm over this, lets go Ginny." Daphne said striding over and grabbing Ginny by the wrist.

Smile fading Justine's hand descended and grabbed Daphne's. "Don't." was all she said, her eyes cracked as though they were full of lightning. Daphne ripped her hand back and gripped her wrist to her chest, obviously remembering her painful experience the day before.

"Keep away from me you freak! You think I don't know what you are. Don't touch me!" Daphne screamed, her pretty face full of anger. Suddenly without warning she was lifted off the ground and thrown into the air to be held there.

"I swear I didn't do it this time." Justine said as she looked around at the others.

"I did actually," came the masculine response from across behind the Australians. Harry stood there with one hand extended in front of him, palm up. He was using wandless magic to hold Daphne air. "I took the example off Justine, actually. I've been watching this whole thing play out and I'm disgusted with your behaviour Daphne and Pansy. You cheated?"

"No, I would never cheat!" Daphne screamed.

"LIAR!" Ginny exploded, "YOU HAVE BEEN TRAINING ON THE COURSE FOR WEEKS!"

"NO!" Pansy yelled, quite terrified to join Daphne, who was floating down to the ground, before being released into a lump from about four meters up.

"I'm afraid I've known since first year, Pansy ... Daphne, I may not have known you that long, but I know you've become too much like Pansy for your own good. I doubt either of you would care that cheating is against the rules of the tournament ... I desire a Hogwarts win as much as anyone here, but I will not stoop to cheating to achieve my aims" Harry's voice was short and cold.

Pansy and Daphne both stared at him in amazement. "You're believing the AUSTRALIANS over US" Daphne shrieked. "You believe foreigners who have shown that they love causing trouble over people from your own school, your own TEAM! YOUR SIDE"

"My SIDE is the light" Harry spat"My team will not cheat with my knowledge, you are walking on THIN ice! I'm afraid that your claim about the Kallaix students causing trouble seems to revolve around you ... I know that they have been quite friendly to Hermione, and to Ginny."

"Oh, so they've accepted your girlfriend and your little fan girl so now your going to support them over us" Daphne demanded.

"Ginny, what happened" Harry asked, ignoring her completely.

"Well, Daphne and Pansy cheated ... they were training on the course. They made me the stable hand for the Kallaix students because I went on the boat the other day..."

"I went on the boat the other day too Daphne, are you going to attempt to punish me" Lighting seemed to crack from Harry's eyes and Daphne rose back into the air and gave a small shriek of fear.

"Draco they're hurting me" she yelled, as the blonde haired Slytherin boy stalked into the stable. He gave Daphne a disgusted look, and remained silent and still.

"Ginny, continue" Harry said, glancing at Draco to warn his brother not to interrupt just yet.

"Anyway, Justine confronted Daphne about training Pansy on the obstacle course - which she did - and then Tanya said that they shouldn't have made me the stable hand, then Daphne tried to have a go at her and that's pretty much where you came in Harry."

"I see ... Daphne, I'm strongly thinking of banning you, and possibly Pansy, for the rest of the Hunt events ... Ginny, if you can find anyone you consider able to take their places, I'd like to know about them. Pansy, if you can't ride the horse without being trained on the course, you're definitely off. Daphne, I won't tolerate cheating. If you do so again, I will be asking Draco to find a new female member from seventh year to take your place on the DC" Harry glared stonily at the girl.

"Draco! You won't let him do that to me" Daphne begged as she drifted back to the ground.

"Try me" Draco said, a sneer creeping onto his face.

"Draco, could you have a look around to see if you can find someone, just in case" Harry enquired.

"Of course" Draco replied. "Though I hope a replacement won't be necessary. Dumbledore wants to see us about the Quest."

Harry nodded. "If you don't mind ladies, I'll take my leave - Pansy, Daphne, get out and take care of your horses, let the Australians take care of theirs."

He and Draco swept from the stables and up towards the castle, heads together and talking quietly. Sniffling, Pansy hurried from the stables, with Daphne stalking behind her, a murderous expression on her face.

"You alright" Kris asked Ginny quietly.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I've been wanting to have a go at them for AGES" Ginny replied smiling.

"Just a point, never try to unsaddle Anubis on your own - call me if you need to" Kris added firmly. "That saddle is quite heavy, I'm sure you noticed."

"She did a bloody good job" Justine said "But Kris is right - that saddle is really heavy. Get one of the guys to help you out. Nubie likes Kris, so he's a good choice."

"Thanks" Ginny said. "And thanks for sticking up for me."

"You're an Aussie - that's what we do" Saul assured her, grinning.

* * *

Hermione was, for lack of a better adjective, flustered. It had been hours since she had last seen Harry, having had lost him during the morning at the hunt, and now rumours of another incident with the damn Australians were filtering back to her. What the hell kind of magnetism did they have to capture the attention of those around them so damn easy?

She stomped into the DC tower and flopped into the nearest chair. She was now borderline annoyed. Harry wasn't here either. She flicked her eyes around the room dejectedly. In a nearby chair Padma Patil was staring into the empty fireplace with a peculiar expression, listening to Lavender brown.

"And then they arranged to have _lunch_ together, right there, in front of everyone. God I swear that hussy of an Australian is after your man!"

Hermione's eyes went wide. She knew Harry would be with Ron, and if Justine had been speaking to Ron… _Harry was with Justine again_. What the hell did a girl have to do to stake her claim on a bloody man with Aussies? DAMMIT! She had to admit they had seemed innocent yesterday but she wasn't fooled anymore. In a fit of pique she turned to the other girls and threw on a fake exited voice.

"What are you two wearing to the Australians party tonight? I just can't wait can you?"

She watched in satisfaction as both girls were deadpanned. "We didn't hear about any party." Padma said flatly.

"Well Ronald was told to invite you," Hermione put in sweetly, "Oh dear… well you might just have to catch up to him at lunch and find out why he doesn't want you there, must go, bye" and with a sweet smile she left the angry girls behind and went to her room.

* * *

She entered the great hall five minutes early and hung around the door wondering if it was ok to go and sit at the Gryffindor table without Ron. Justine had run back to the ship and changed, and was now wearing a black trench coat, high heeled boots and black pants. Ron solved the problem by coming through the doors and touching her arm. "You look smashing."

"Well, thankyou good sir, I do aim to please." Justine parried, giving him a mock curtsey.

"Ah, so that explains the distinct lack of fabric to all of your clothing?" Ron asked cracking a grin.

"Why sir, are you implying I am scantily clad?" Justine asked raising an eyebrow.

Ron began to laugh, "Well not at the moment, but have you ever looked at that uniform skirt of yours in the mirror?"

Justine grinned, "It's got a charm so it will stay down and cover everything. Where are Harry and Hermione?"

Ron waved a had aimlessly in the air, "Off at some meeting about the Quest tomorrow, Harry and Draco are in charge, and Hermione is making some list for them…"

"So Harry and that are in charge of the event, like they did all the planning and stuff?"

"Yeah and tomorrow morning they're being obliviated so they don't remember anything, then its all fair again, but we will kick your schools ass regardless…"

"Wench!" Justine said, pretending to slap him around the head as he led her to the table to eat. "I should revoke your party invitation for that!"

"If you two can stop flirting, Ron, come and sit with me," Padma turned up, glaring and Justine and grabbing Ron's arm, towing him off to the Hogwarts table. Ron glanced back at Justine, and then turned to explain to Padma.

"See you at the party!" Justine called out clearly, so that Padma could certainly hear it.

* * *

As the majority of the DA walked out of the Room of Requirement, Draco leant against the wall and watched them, a faint sneer playing at his lips as he watched the rest of the people leave. Harry, with Seamus and Leon walking beside him, stepped into the corridor, but didn't walk away.

"Harry, I think we need to do something about Draco," Leon said, "He's been being a right little bastard again lately … going back to how he used to be, before you and became friends. Everyone's getting pissed off at it."

"He's hurting," Harry said, "He doesn't know how to react. His emotions are completely alien to him, he doesn't understand what he's doing, or what he should be doing differently. He was never taught how emotions worked."

"Then we'll have to teach him," Seamus shrugged.

"And how do you propose we do that?" Harry demanded. "I wouldn't know where to start, and he's my brother!"

"I think he needs to calm down, for a start. Get away from his emotions," Leon said. "If he can push them back for a little while, then he can start to learn to deal with them … but he really _did_ get pushed off the deep end, didn't he?"

Harry and Seamus both nodded. "He really was," Harry agreed. "He was only just learning to deal with positive emotions, now he's surrounded by negative ones … the question is, how are we going to get him to relax?"

"I think I can help there," Leon remarked unexpectedly. "Let's go get our swords and convince Draco to come with us … that shouldn't be too hard. We're going to go and practice elsewhere today." The other two looked at him, obviously wondering how this was going to help, but Leon just smiled and said, "Mate! Trust me."

* * *

Ten minutes later they were walking into the edge of the forest, carrying all of their gear and ready for an intense training session. They didn't go deep into the forest, and long before Harry, Draco and Seamus could get nervous about being in the forest, Leon stepped past a tree and stopped.

The others stepped up beside and stopped too, amazed at the beauty that could be found in this forbidden place. The trees had somehow conspired to grow in an almost perfect circle, and rather than the darkness that prevailed when you got into the deeper forest, they had lighter green leaves, and the sun shone down from above them, lighting the ground with a relaxing dapple effect.

"Beautiful," Harry murmured, then turned around to examine things further, and realized that the clearing looked out over the lake. Normally, this was a good thing, enhancing the perfect quality of the spot. But right now, it was anything but good.

The Kallaix cruiser was moored right in front of them and, less than six hundred metres away, Justine was lying, wearing a white bikini that barely covered the essentials, across the thin board that separated the pool from the edge of the boat. If she moved a centimeter or two in either direction, she would fall into water. She had something white and sparkly under her head, wearing big dark sunglasses, seemingly fast asleep.

Harry wondered if it would be possible to get Draco out of here before he realized what was going on, but looking back at the clearing, he found the other three boys cheerfully setting up the training mat, Draco looking more relaxed than he had in some time.

Sword fighting always relaxed Draco, it gave him something that he had to concentrate on completely, which meant that he wasn't thinking about anything else at the time. They faced off, Harry against Seamus, Draco against Leon, and began. Harry whipped his sword in a swift arch, aiming for Seamus's head, but Seamus blocked it effortlessly.

They had a similar fighting style, with similar weapons. Draco fought with the same sort of style, so Leon was the one who was really different in the group, fighting in a Japanese style, rather than the European from the rest of the group.

Leon and Draco circled each other, looking for an opening, and Leon was the first to attack, raising his blade of his right shoulder to swing down across the midsection. Although Draco blocked the oncoming blow with the effortless grace that he always seemed to have when sword fighting, Leon knew that he was almost a match for the Slytherin boy, and he was one of the few people who Draco had to think to defeat. That gave him some pride, even though he didn't win.

Draco kept blocking, rather than attacking, letting Leon practice his moves so that they would be ready for the dueling when the day arrived; it wasn't that far away, after all. And Leon needed more practice than Draco did.

Leon stepped back to twist and thrust his blade towards Draco, who pushed it away. Using the momentum, Leon adjusted his sword into a rising swing that would have sliced Draco from thigh to shoulder, if it had landed. Draco skipped back, rather than blocking the strike and feinted at Leon, who blocked, but Draco slipped in and scored a nick across Leon's stomach.

"Point to me, I believe," Draco smirked, as they broke back. There was a faint smile playing on his face, and he was clearly enjoying himself, as he only did when he was fighting. Leon thought it was worth losing to make Draco happy – otherwise he would have tried to persuade Harry or Seamus to go against the true master in the group.

But Draco wouldn't enjoy that half as much, because he didn't have to think at all defeat either of the Gryffindor boys, which, in his words 'took the fun out of the whole thing completely. What's the point in winning if it isn't hard to do so?' Leon agreed with the statement entirely.

Before they could join again, Draco looked over Leon's shoulder and suddenly froze completely. Leon turned around, and immediately realized what Draco was looking at. On the boat, Justine had moved, her arm falling down the side of the boat, fingers a couple of inches from the tops of the waves that rippled across the surface of the lake.

Draco's eyes were focused on her, and the happiness that had filled him for a moment drained away. Leon could see it leaving his face, as if it had never been, to be replaced by the cold mask that he had begun to wear more and more often of late. He looked around for Harry, wondering what he should do. Should he just leave Draco alone, or should he try and distract the other boy.

Just then, there was the sound of voices coming through the woods, one male and one female, laughing and talking. Draco's eyes didn't leave Justine, and Leon turned just in time to see Ax and Tanya walk out into the clearing, each of them holding a sword. It was pretty obvious that they were here to train as well.

Tanya and Ax walked into the clearing, not expecting to meet anyone. They had been coming here because it was secluded, and they had never met anyone here before. Today, for the first time, there were people. Leon and Draco were staring out at something in the direction of the lake. Harry and Seamus was leaning against each other, each jabbing at the other with a sword, and shaking with laughter so hard that it was a wonder they could move at all.

They were gasping through their tears of laughter, "I'm gonna getcha!" "No, I'm gonna get CHU!"

"What the _hell_ is going on here?" Ax demanded, looking around in frank amazement. Harry and Seamus both looked up, startled, then both of them almost simultaneous tumbled over their sword blades as they went to move forward. The resulting clatter was enough to shock Draco out of his stupor, and when he looked around and saw Harry and Seamus sprawled over their swords, laughing fit to burst, he gave them a disdainful look, and then returned to whatever had caught his attention on the lake.

"What are you doing here?" Ax and Leon asked each other at the same time.

"_We're_ training," Leon said, "In _my_ clearing. What are you doing?"

"Training in _my_ clearing," Ax said, "I've been coming here since first year."

"So have I!" Leon exclaimed. "This is my training place."

"It was mine for the duration of time I spent at Hogwarts," Ax stated "And this was the best place I could think of to train when I got back."

"Guys, why are you fighting over whose clearing this is?" Tanya asked, looking between her two friends. "Ax, you're only going to be here for another week or so, and then Leon can have the clearing to himself. For now, I think you're just going to have to share."

"But he'll see my training techniques!" both of them cried at the same time.

"I want _you_ to stay out of here while we're still here," Ax informed Leon superciliously, "This place is mine, and I can prove it," he strode over to one of the trees and pointed to a place where he had carved _Ax Rules This Place_ in the bark with the tip of his sword.

"You know, I never noticed that," Leon said, then glared at Ax, "And there's no way I'm going to just walk out of here. If you want this place, you're going to have to fight me for it."

"As if you'd beat me," Ax smirked. "But if you really want…"

Leon realized that he had just challenged a _sword mage_ to a duel _with swords_, and decided that might not be such a good idea. Before the two of them could continue their argument, Tanya walked over to Draco, who was standing, jaw dropped, and still staring at the boat.

"What are you looking at?" she asked, and followed his gaze. For a moment there was a stunned silence, then _"OI!_" Tanya yelled, loud enough to startle Draco out of his stupor again, then screamed at the top of her lungs, "_Justine, get some clothes on, you're being perved on!"_

Over on the boat, Justine started upright in surprise, completely forgetting where she was, and tumbled over the side of the boat. Draco and Tanya both yelped and started forwards, as if they could help her, even though they were too far away to actually _do_ anything.

Just before Justine hit the water of the lake, a bubble appeared around her, and the head of the McEwen dragon appeared from beneath the water. _"It is a good thing _I_ was watching,_" the dragon remarked to Justine, as it floated her back to the deck, where the bubble burst.

Justine snatched up her sarong, wrapping it firmly around herself as she looked in the direction of the yell that had startled her. When she saw Draco, Leon and Tanya staring over at her, she gave a soft shriek and dove for the stairs, disappearing below decks.

Over in the clearing, Tanya rounded on Draco, "Why were you perving on Justine?"

Draco just gazed at her in shock, for a moment completely taken over by the shock of watching Justine fall, and the surprise from Tanya suggesting that he was perving on a girl that he hated beyond life itself for ruining his own.

"Whatever you might like to believe I wasn't _perving_ on her, as you so … delightfully … put it. But when she's putting it on display, I can scarcely help noticing," Draco sneered.

"So you _were_ perving on her," Tanya said, and suddenly the clearing was filled the sound a resounding _smack_, as she slapped him around the face. "How _dare _you!"

Draco's temper, only barely held in check, snapped completely and he raised his hand to hit her back. Seamus, behind him, had recovered and gotten to his feet, only to lunge forward and grab Draco's arm to stop him, but it was already a superfluous move. The moment Draco's arm had come back, Ax was there, standing in front of Tanya, one arm behind him, keeping her shielded by his own body, other hand holding his sword pointing straight a Draco with a _very_ cold look on his face. "_I dare you_," he hissed softly.

Harry and Leon were already beside Draco, pulling him back, out of range of Ax's powerful sword and uncertain temper. Before Draco could think of anything to say, Ax had sheathed his blade and draped an arm over Tanya. "You know what, we'll just leave you to her little kinky day dreams and train on the boat," he sneered, before steering Tanya out of the clearing.

Behind them, Draco let out something between a shriek and a roar of pure fury that didn't sound even remotely human.

"You know what," Seamus said weakly as the Australians disappeared from view, "I think we should call it a day."

Leon and Harry nodded quickly in agreement and started packing up. Draco ignored them completely and stormed out of the clearing towards the castle. Seamus started after him, and then belatedly dropped back as if to help the other two boys with cleaning up. "You go," Harry said, "Make him get ready for the Quidditch. Just make sure he doesn't kill anyone. I'll come and try to calm him down when we've cleaned up down here."

Seamus nodded and hurried off again, following Draco from the clearing. When he found Draco, the Slytherin boy was muttering under his breath. "How _dare _that little so-and-so accuse me of … that little bitch! She hit me …" and other such comments. Seamus decided that he would have little luck with persuading Draco to calm down, so he simply trailed the other boy, making sure, as Harry had ordered that Draco didn't kill anyone before the Quidditch match.

* * *

"OK, so we have now found out that Draco and Harry are designing the Quest," Justine said, pacing up and down in front of the sombre –well almost- group of Australians. "Therefore, they will once more have an advantage over us … this means that we must steal the advantage from them … but first we have to find out where the plans are."

"I saw a pile of papers in Dumbledore's office," Alyson piped up, "It had Quest written over it."

"That's it! We need to break into Dumbledore's office and steal the plans for the Quest, who's with me?" Justine cried the last out in true adventurer style.

"AYE!" The Australian's roared back boisterously. The fact that most of the males were a little tipsy probably wasn't a good thing.

"The only time that we will have to steal the plans will be during the first Quidditch match," Justine continued, resuming pacing now that the one potential flaw in her plan, which had been locating said plans. "This means that we must sneak up to the castle unobservd during this Quidditch match, which means …"

"That you need a distraction," Saul finished for her. "Don't worry, I'm on it."

When Saul said don't worry, it was time to find a bomb shelter and _panic_. "Are you sure?" Justine asked, "Do you want some help?"

"Nah," Saul said with a slightly mischievous grin, "I'm _on it_."

"OK," Justine said, "Saul is in charge of distractions. Jacque, you're on survelience, Jeffery, Adam, watch the match, let Jacque know the moment the Snitch is caught, Tanya, Alyson, Ax, Kris and myself will be on mission "Information", Tegan, infiltrate the teachers box and if necessary distract Dumbledore."

Tegan saluted and left the boat. Jacque rose and headed down to her secret operations booth in the wheel house. Jeffery and Adam saluted in Tegan style and headed off to find the good seats in the Quidditch stands – the game was not due to start for another twenty minutes but oh well.

Ax, Kris, Justine and Tanya went downstairs to their room to get ready for their mission. "Good thing Saul isn't coming with us," Ax remarked, "He'd have us all dressed up in black suits with balaclavas."

"You should consider that you know," Saul said, wandering down behind them. "But I understand if you can't listen to logic."

Ax rolled his eyes at Kris where Saul couldn't see him. "What are you doing here?"

"Preparing," Saul responded, eyes dancing wickedly. "I'm going to give those poncy French guys a _shock_."

A few minutes later Saul left, with no visible traces of 'preparation'. The Australians were well used to Saul's methods – they knew his distraction would be good.

"Alright. We better get going – Dumbledore's sure to have defensive charms all over the place, so we'll need as long as possible to get through them all, and then reset them when we leave," Kris said, looking over his team.

"Yeah yeah, we got you, let's just get started!" Ax said, having no patience with Kris doing the 'I'm going to be the wise leader' thing. He tolerated it sometimes – particularly when it came to football – but not now.

"I'm just making sure everyone knows what's going on."

"While you're giving your little speeches, the clock is ticking," Ax replied, heading up towards the deck. Everyone else followed him, Kris managed to insert himself as second in line, then neatly overtake Ax on the deck as they all broke into a run, waving to Jacque as they passed.

There were sounds of cheering from the pitch – evidently someone had just scored a goal. "Quick," Kris grunted, "Get into the castle as quickly as possible, less chance of anyone seeing us."

They all ducked quickly into Hogwarts castle and stopped to do a quick checkup and catch their breath, because half of them were laughing now.

"OK, let's move before anyone comes and finds us here," Kris said.

"let's move," Justine agreed, and they were off again.

"There's someone coming," Alyson said.

"Here!" Ax said, dragging a broom cupboard open, and everyone clambered in, standing still and holding their breath as a few footsteps pattered past outside. The moment the coast was clear, they pushed the door open and sprawled out into the corridor again.

"OK Kris, you're doing a great job of leading, but I think you'd better leave that to Ax or me now," Justine said, "We're familiar with the ground, and we will probably have to hide again before we get to our destination."

"Fine," Kris replied, more than a little sullen.

Ax set them out at a quick dog trot, according to him going by a route which had cupboards and classrooms within sight at all times. Five times more they had to hide from people heading down late to the Quidditch match, which was nerve wracking and frustrating.

They reached the gargoyle in fairly good time, and could still hear the sounds of the Quidditch game going on out on the grounds. "Ice Mice," Ax said clearly to the gargoyle, which jumped to life and got out of the way so that the door could open.

Kris was about to step inside, since Dumbledore's office was one of the few places in Hogwarts he had seen enough of to know.

"Stop," Alyson said quietly, reaching a hand out to touch Kris's shoulder.

"Something's wrong," Justine said, "I can sense it."

"Yeah, I can see where it is," Ax agreed. "Justine, will you handle it or shall I?"

"It's a trip wire," Alyson said.

Justine raised her hands, and suddenly an area of air became frozen, so that those who could not sense it any fashion could see it properly.

Ax took out his sword and swung it down to smash into the tripwire, which dissapeared. "What are we going to do about that when leave?" Tanya asked.

"I only Banished it," Ax replied, "I'll call it back when we leave. I just do things my way."

"Let's go," Kris said. "Alyson, you'd better lead. You can see spells."

They only encountered one spell on the stairs, which they got rid of easily. Most people would have difficulty getting past it, since the stair was moving towards the wire all the time. This one, Justine froze and everyone jumped over it.

The office door was locked tight, and everyone figured that it would take more than '_Alohomora_' to open it. Justine laid her hand on the door with her eyes closed. "Ax, there's a _very_ strong lock spell on this door, as well a sensor that will activate if the lock spell is disarmed, and become touch sensitive. I'm going to make the door hot – Kris, you're our resident lock expert, you take care of the lock and I'll swing the door the open without touching it, then I think we should sent Ax in first, he has the strongest and fastest reflexes."

"Let's go!" Kris said, reaching out and grabbing one of the bobby pins that were holding Justine's ponytail together. Justine stepped back and placed one hand palm out towards the door, and heat began to radiate off it in almost visible waves.

"Aren't you all glad that I mastered temperatures long ago…" She said, decreasing the heat and allowing Kris to step forward. He slipped the pin into the lock and motioned for quiet, within seconds a clicking sound signified the lock opening.

"I've still got it," Kris said standing up. "I'm the man."

Justine grinned and made a flicking gesture with the back of her hand the door opened enough for Alyson to glance a little way in. "Yep, the phoenix is still in their, wish me luck…" Justine threw the door completely open.

Fawkes stood up taller on his perch, and was throwing up his mighty head to squeal when he got his first good look at Alyson. Transfixed by her eyes he began to calm and stare deeply at her, stooping on the perch and finally falling into a deep sleep.

"I say," said a voice from above the Aussies, "what a neat trick, Fawksie has gone right off to nipper land."

Justine stopped and stared upwards, a few of the millions of portraits on the wall could see the group at the door, most prominently the man dressed in green, and all could see Ally. Raising a hand she muttered some words under her breath and a warm breeze tickled up the walls. Each of the faces went blissfully blank and Justine waved her hand in a round sweeping gesture and each canvass went black.

"Dude, did you just erase all the paintings?" Kris asked worriedly "I'm pretty sure that Dumbledore will notice missing art."

"She's just played with their memory and dimmed their canvasses." Ax said, "I should know, I taught her the memory charm, and the canvass thing is from when we broke into the potions lab that time…"

"Oh yes, the portrait of the woman in the meadow, such a flirt." Kris mused, "Makes potions worth it…"

"Flashing us…" Ax joined in.

"Causing distractions…" Kris wistfully added.

"When you two are _quite_ done musing on the painting of that hussy…" Tanya quipped from Dumbledore's desk, "I found the papers."

"Where!" suddenly everyone leapt over to her. She had opened one of the draws in Dumbledore's desk and there, clearly labelled, was a set of papers. "The Quest," Ax read. "OK, that sounds like what we were looking for."

"Shouldn't we check?" Kris asked, "They might be trying to lead us away from the real papers."

"Kris – how would they know what we were like? How many people do you think could _break into_ Dumbledore's office?" Ax demanded. "Let's go!"

"He'd probably notice if the papers just disappeared," Justine quipped.

"Then copy them!" Alyson hissed.

"Who knows how to copy?" Tanya asked. "Hang on! _I_ know how to copy! _Duplicatus!_" a second set of papers appeared.

"Take the copy, just in case the original has some sort of charm on it," Ax said.

"No, don't!" Kris replied, "Take the original, odds are there's a charm on it that will make the copy slightly different … Dumbledore probably won't look through it carefully, my dad used to do that _all the time_."

"Whatever," Ax shrugged.

Suddenly a wave of cheering broke out. "Shit! The match is over!" Justine yelped, "And from the volume, I think Hogwarts won. We better get down there, now."

Suddenly there was a howl of laughter.

"We have approximately ten minutes. Distraction is in progress," a litter receiver on Kris's phone piped up. Jacque sounded as if she was trying _very_ hard not to laugh.

"What's he done?" Kris asked as they headed out of the office. Fawkes was beginning to stir, Alyson was having trouble keeping him asleep, and they decided they didn't want to be there when her effect on him wore off.

Justine was waving her hands, setting everything in the office to rights. They leapt over the trip wire on the stairs as Jacque laughed and said, "You'll have to wait and see … oh god, I don't know whether to laugh or hide!" with that she ended the transmission.

They sprinted through the doors guarded by the gargoyle, and at the last second Ax spun around and slashed out with his sword, through the area where the other trip wire had been, while Justine was starting to close the door.

Then they were out and pelting down towards the pitch, most of them heading for the Kallaix change rooms to get ready for the match that they would have to play.

Tegan walked out of the Change Room, where she had found Saul's clothes and broom, Ax was already up in the stands waiting for her. In the middle of the Quidditch pitch, surrounded by a circle of incense and candles, Saul was … I suppose you call it dancing, butt naked. He was bobbing up and down and waving his arms around like a hippy.

Tegan sighed. "Saul, get changed, you have a game to play," she said, holding out Saul's Quidditch uniform and broom, looking up at the sky rather than at her countryman.

Saul stopped dancing and put out the candles with a wave of his wand. Before accepting his clothes, he bowed to each of the four stands, earning himself a wave of applause, then winked and said, "Yes ladies, it's all real."

"Saul, if I were you, I wouldn't be bragging about that," Tegan said with a slight sneer, still not looking at Saul. "I have had the misfortune of seeing it before," she shuddered delicately.

Ron Weasley, wearing a badge that said 'Security' pinned to his black Quidditch uniform, came across the pitch towards them, also trying not to look at Saul. "If you don't put your clothes on Saul, I'm going to have ban you from the Quidditch pitch, which would mean you couldn't play for your school."

"What?" Saul yelled.

"You've got to be _joking_," Tegan added, glaring at Ron, "This is nowhere _near_ as bad as what he did when Greg got elected as Minister of Magic this last time … and no one even mentioned getting him in trouble for that!"

"Well maybe they should have! And in case you haven't noticed, this is _England_, not _Australia_," Ron replied.

"Piss off you little bastard! You have no right to tell us what we can and can't do! You're on security, that means breaking up fights, like that one over there," she pointed to the place where Ax was threatening Leon. As Ron ran off, she commented, "And you'd look _really_ hot with black hair."

"DID YOU LOOK AT MY WOMAN? DID YOU? I KNOW YOU DID, DON'T TRY TO LIE!" Ax was screaming, holding Leon off the ground against the stands. Leon was looking bemused and yelling that he hadn't looked at anyone anyway.

"I said don't try to lie," Ax snarled at him, no longer yelling, "I saw you looking at her. Remember this – _she is mine_, and if I catch you, or anyone else, looking at her again, I will decapitate them."

No one but the other Australians noticed Justine and Kris standing in the change room doorway, laughing so hard they could hardly stand up any more. Tanya was standing not far away, her head in her hands, shoulders shaking, though no one knew if was from laughter or tears.

"Shit!" Ron yelped and raced over to join the crowd that was growing around the pair.

"What happened?" Saul asked.

"Ax is covering for you," Tegan replied, glancing at him to see if he was dressed. He had managed to pull on his unclothes and was currently struggling with the robes. "I don't think anyone saw the beginning, but Ax walked over to Leon and said 'Work with me' then started screaming. It's all a set up."

"I see," Saul said, now fully dressed. He accepted his broom from Tegan and nodded in thanks, "So, let's go kick some Spanish butt," he said.

* * *

Thanks:

Ava Monroe – glad that you enjoyed the chapter! It's good to know that you're getting who everyone is. We know the characters really intimately, because we've been talking about this story for almost a year now, so sometimes we might not go into enough description, but I think we're doing an alright job. The Kallaix kids get taken down a notch soon, don't worry. Hogwarts will have her chance to shine!

The Evil Percussionist – ah, our ever so observant beta reader. You didn't even notice we dedicated the chapter to you! –falls of chair laughing- well done! It is good seeing the story published, isn't it? Hope you liked the added bits to this chapter … you'll have to go over them of course, I'm sure I made _loads_ of mistakes.

goDDark – how can you hate chocolate cookies? Oh well, we all have our little idiosyncrasies I suppose! I'm glad that you like the Kallaix crew. We are doing everything we can to make them good. Glad to know that it's succeeding in your case! I'm glad that you like Ax. He's a joint effort between the two of us. We didn't even realize that people could get the impression of were-sex when we wrote that – it was one of the original scenes from the story (back from the days before I was involved)!


	9. Butterbeer, Lei's and Craaazy Music

_This one is For Queenie and Trent - HAPPY BIRTHDAY! We love you and hope that both your 18th's were wondefull, enjoy!

* * *

_

Chapter Nine:** Leis, Butterbeer, and CRAAAZY Music**

"And the Kallaix Knights have the Quaffle – that's Kristopher Crompton heading for the other goal – but where are the other Australian Chasers?" Lee Jordan was roaring into a microphone. It would seem that the commentator had taken a liking to the Australian players … and their nice _pace_.

Suddenly Saul swooped in from above and Adam came up from below, Kris dropped the Quaffle, and Adam tucked it neatly away as Saul dove towards the other side of the goal, as if he had a Quaffle. The Spanish Keeper was fooled, and the Quaffle went through.

Justine was watching from above, twirling her Beaters bat absentmindedly as she watched the game. Jeffery had told her to stay out of it for a while, as he was feeling … _restless_. Now her fellow Beater was racing all over the pitch, whacking Bludgers in every direction and having the time of his life.

Justine sighed, totally bored. The other team was good; Kallaix had only managed to score three goals, to the Spanish two.

Tanya dropped in beside Justine, hovering lazily. "No sign of the Snitch?" Justine asked.

"Not yet. Spanish fellow is looking at the moment, and I'm keeping an eye on him. He dives, I'll follow," Tanya replied.

"Watch out for feinting," Justine replied. "This is only your second out of school match isn't it?"

"Yeah," Tanya replied, "I'm on it. You know how much Isaac Thorpe-Townsend loves feinting."

"Well look at his brother – he has to get attention somehow," Justine pointed out, "And he has mastered the move."

"True," Tanya replied, "Just like I've mastered recognising it … to an extent. Ooh, nice save!"

"Excuse me – they look like they might try that again, I should probably stop them," Justine said.

"Try not to break the Bludger this time," Tanya called, and the two of the separated. Those members of the crowd who heard the comment laughed.

Justine flew towards the goal posts, giggling madly as she corkscrewed towards Jacque, noting the position of a Bludger that Jeffery had thoughtfully sent her way. She came out of the corkscrew and hit the ball with all her might as one of the Spanish players lifted the Quaffle to try and score.

The Bludger sailed gracefully through the air, struck the Quaffle without even touching the player herself, and they both balls struck the goalpost with an ominous 'oof'ing sound. The entire stand went silent as the goalpost bent backwards.

"Justine! How many times do I have to tell you – if you are going to hit the goalpost, _break_ it, don't _bend_ it!" Jacque screamed through the silence. "And now look – you've exploded the Quaffle _again_!"

"Oops," Justine shrugged, "Sorry!"

* * *

Ax sat and laughed, and laughed and laughed … "Are you going to stop laughing any time soon?" Tegan demanded irritably. "It's not like she's never done this before. She's always breaking _something_ in Quidditch." 

Seated around them were the Thundreds students, who were applauding, cheering and laughing at Justine's technique. Justine seemed to have gotten over her 'sorrow' at breaking the ball, and had floated to the middle of the pitch, where she bowed deeply to her supporters.

"JUSTINE BEHIND YOU!" Alyson screamed out.

Justine snapped back into an upright position and half-turned as a Bludger, possibly the same one she had hit a minute ago, flew beside her, and seemed to glance off her chest.

"Did that hit?" Ax asked worriedly as Justine leant down over her broom, gasping. Then suddenly she looked up and gave a slightly glazed smile at the Kallaix supporters. "That was way close," she wheezed. She coughed and wiped her mouth.

Ax didn't hear as beside him Tegan muttered, "Shit, she's bleeding."

"Alright, I have a replacement Bludger, but I just didn't come prepared for a broken Quaffle," Oliver looked a little pained, "I mean we _have_ one, but this is just wrong. I've never seen so many balls broken in a month in _Professional_ Quidditch, let alone School League."

"Welcome to our world," Adam said. "Come prepared for _anything_. You should see what happens when Justine and Jeffery are _versus_ one another."

Tanya flew down and grinned, "Remember the time that Justine broke four of the goalposts in a game against him?" she said, "She was betting she could get all six … I won."

"You broke _four_!" Oliver yelped. "Justine! If you break _anything_ else, I'm giving the match to the other team!"

Coughing slightly, Justine flew off to search for a Bludger, her vision slightly off for somereason and adrelalin flying through her system… If she couldn't break equipment, how about some bones? No, she couldnt do that. Damn.

* * *

Once the replacement Quaffle had been found, Oliver awarded Villefort two penalties, and consequently set himself up for a bitch fight with Adam, who was protesting that breaking things wasn't against the rules, it just didn't usually happen. 

Oliver, however, was _not_ listening. The Villefort team tucked the Quaffle away and took the lead. Kris, Adam and Saul looked at each other and nodded. High above them, Justine smirked; they were getting ready to fight back.

Saul headed up, Kris headed down and Adam headed straight ahead. "The Whirlwind," Tegan muttered to Ax who nodded, grinning. This would be good.

Saul came down one side of the Spaniard, while Kris came down the other, both of them corkscrewing as tightly as possible. Surprised, the Spanish paused to look at them as they continued the movement, and didn't notice as Adam came straight up beside him and grabbed the Quaffle.

The three of them hurtled towards their goals, Kris and Saul flying in close circles around Adam, and the three of them passing Quaffle too quickly for anyone to follow. As they came toward the goals, with the Spanish goalkeeper looking totally out of it, they all spun out, each heading for one of the three goals. No one, least of all the Spanish Keeper, was sure who had the Quaffle, and in a split second decision he went towards Saul, who was on the far left and was known to be ... tricky. Kris, on the other side, scored perfectly.

"GO THE WHIRLWIND!" Ax screamed happily, while the Thundreds people went nuts around him. The Head girl turned to look at him and said, "I'm glad that we did not have to go up against you, Hogwarts was bad enough. Perhaps it was all for the good that we were knocked out in the first round; your players are quite ... vicious." She was cute. Maybe they could get together some time.

Justine looked around, smiling faintly. The Whirlwind was her favourite move, one of the trademarks of the Kallaix Knights. As she looked, she spotted Tanya diving. Justine caught the expression on Tanya's face and immediately realised that she was _not_ feinting. She had seen the Snitch. The Spanish Seeker spotted Tanya, just as Justine spotted him.

She headed straight for the nearest Bludger, a cold smile playing on her face. Finding the Bludger, she swung her bat back and gave an unheard cry of pain, whacking the Bludger with all of her considerable Beating power.

The iron ball shot like an arrow straight for the other Seeker, who was not quick enough to dodge. The ball slammed into his arm, and though Justine was not close enough to get any sound, she knew that his arm was broken. She nodded faintly – her work this game was done.

Tanya managed to catch the Snitch with ease, knowing that the other Seeker was out of action. "And the game goes to the_ Kallaix Knights_!" Lee Jordan roared happily.

* * *

Draco Malfoy came out of the Hogwarts changing room just in time to catch the last comment. Had anyone been close enough to hear him, they would have heard him swear viciously. That meant he'd be up against _her_. The two of them, on a Quidditch pitch, with bats and iron balls floating around was _not _a happy equation. 

The Kallaix team was coming in to land, all in a happy, laughing bundle. Except for _her_. He wasn't sure where _she_ was, and he didn't really care.

Up in the stands, Ax was looking at Justine. Why wasn't she landing? She was just floating dead still, one hand over her mouth, as if she was trying not to start coughing or something. "Tegan?" he asked, noting that the werewolf was also staring at Justine.

"She's hurt. She's bleeding. Internally," Tegan said, her werewolf senses heightening, already on her feet and heading for the ground, Ax a mere pace behind her. Ax watched in panic as Justine started to slip sideways. He tried to yell at someone that she was hurt, but everyone was tied up in the euphoria of winning. Realising that sound wasn't going to get him anywhere, he started waving.

When Oliver looked at him and started waving back, Ax attempted to point at Tanya, but someone jumped up on the bench in front of him, yelling something about some imbecilic point and apparently feeling the need to stand to get it across properly.

In an unusual show of temper, Ax shoved the boy out of his way as he raced for the pitch. Oliver was no longer looking his way – little bastard. The next he saw Justine she was falling, tumbling through the air without any form of control – she'd fainted. Ax whipped out his sword which was already glowing purple. Everyone around him leapt away from him as he prepared to cast a cushioning charm.

But there was no need, as Draco Malfoy looked up and lifted up his arms to catch her, princess style. Ax could see the expression on his face change from blank, to shocked, to dislike. Justine's arms, however, had already found their way around Draco's neck – he wasn't going to be getting free of her until she woke up. She wouldn't be happy.

* * *

Kris stalked across the pitch towards Draco and Justine. What had the Slytherin boy done _this time_? "What happened?" he asked politely when he reached them, though he really wanted to say 'WHAT THE FUCK HAVE YOU DONE TO HER?' – Stupid tact lessons from dad … 

"Oh what, so you're making me the bad guy of this situation?" Draco demanded, glaring over Justine. "You're girlfriend just dropped on me!"

Kris rolled his eyes and let out a deep breath, "Don't get your knickers in a knot," he said, "I believe I just calmly what happened. I take it Justine fell."

"Keep your mind of my underwear, asshole," Draco snarled.

At that moment a panting Ax and Tegan skidded to a halt beside them. "Get her to the hospital wing," Tegan gasped, "She's bleeding inside!"

"We think the Bludger hit her, even though she made it seem like she didn't," Ax put in, catching his breath. He glanced at Draco, "Don't get me wrong – I don't like you. Justine clings, she isn't going to let you go until she wakes up, or magic can pry her off. Get moving."

Draco was now looking rather confused as Kris, Ax and Tegan started herding him rapidly towards Hogwarts. He quickly got the idea and hurried on, hoping to get rid of his burden as quickly as possible, as she was choking him.

Just before they reached the doors to the Entrance Hall, Justine coughed, and suddenly her arms fell from his neck as she went completely slack. On her bottom lip was a dribble of blood. Draco realised the seriousness of the situation and bolted for the hospital wing, not even bothering to pass Justine to Kris.

In the hospital wing, Draco placed Justine gently on the bed and Madam Pomfrey took over. A few well placed pokes and a single spell and Justine's eyes flew open. She took a few deep breaths, as if wondering at her ability to breathe easily, then said, breathless but clear, "Tanya owes me money."

Just at that moment the rest of the Australians entered the room and Tanya piped up, "No she doesn't! Justine, you bet you'd break a Quaffle, I bet you'd break a goalpost, you did _both_."

"Dammit. Call it quits?"

"Sure," Tanya shrugged.

Jeffery sniggered, "And you were trying _soo_ hard to be gentle on the goalposts… we all knew you couldn't do it – you broke _four_ of them in our last game in Aussie!"

"So, will she be ready to leave in time for tonight?" Ax asked, now that the immediate catastrophe was over, he was back to being calm.

"Yes, she can leave right now – may I enquire as to why?" Madam Pomfrey asked.

"We're having a party, she can't miss it!" Saul replied jovially. "We need a hostess, and god knows she's the only one of us who could pull it off!"

"Alyson or I could probably do it," Tanya replied.

"She has more class," Kris replied, and Alyson snorted, tossing her hair back. "Thank you Draco. Your first kind deed since we arrived."

"_Really_, don't mention it," Draco sneered and stalked from the room, slamming the door behind him in a rare show of temper.

* * *

At dinner that night, Draco seemed to Harry to be ignoring the events of the morning, and focusing his anger on Tanya instead. 

"And she _slapped _me, I mean, honestly, how has the nerve to slap me?" He was stabbing maliciously at his potato with the tip of a steak knife and Harry asked somewhat innocently, "Draco, what did the potato do to you?"

Draco glared at him and demanded, "Does she not know who I am, and I mean, I'm a Malfoy, you don't just go around slapping Malfoys!"

Harry tried really hard to suppress a smile and replied "I think she does, I mean, your not exactly subtle about it are you?" Harry gestured to Draco's blazer pocket where the Malfoy family crest gleamed in silver.

"All Malfoys are subtle, its part of our charm." Draco stated dismissively waving a hand.

Harry shook his head, munching on some of his steak. "Well maybe she just doesn't like you?"

Draco looked perplexed and his brow furrowed as if he were thinking really hard. "That's impossible,"

Harry sighed and stood up, watching the food that was on his plate left over disappear. "Draco maybe you just have to admit that not all people are willing to believe you're a decent guy, maybe some of them just don't like you."

Draco got up as well and slowly followed Harry up the stairs, watching as Harry gave him one last smile and then went to join Ron and Seamus, planning what one would wear to an Aussie party.

Something moved in the shadows next to him and Draco's hand on impulse pulsed with his own Dark magai gift, but it was a very frightened looking Tanya who stepped from the shadows, her half closed eyes flicking down to the floor as she blushed.

Draco put a hand to his cheek, where it had taken several creams and potions to get the bruising left by the little hellcat to dissipate to his normal skin tone. "What do you want?"

She looked u at him with hug blue eyes and mumbled incredibly fast, "I'm sorry I hit you I really shouldn't have and I hope you can forgive me but you shouldn't have been looking, but it wasn't my place to do anything but if you do it again Ax and Kris said they'd deal with you but… I'm sorry."

Draco blinked three times in concession and said slowly, for reasons he didn't understand, "Its ok, I understand, don't worry." Before walking up the stairs to the DC tower.

* * *

Justine touched some rose coloured lip-gloss to her lips and shimmied to the music that was already blaring. She had her hair down, but her front bangs drawn back off her face and pinned with sparkly diamante combs. Justine smiled mischievously; she knew she looked damn good. Her eyes darkened by mascara, minute fake diamonds stuck on her collarbone and arms with simple charms. 

Humming to herself she walked over to her bed and picked up her black embroidered sarong to go over her bikini. Like the swimsuit it was studded around the edges with diamantes. She had recovered remarkably fast and there wasn't even a bruise across her chest, 'and besides' ... she thought to herself, 'I'm fine, Draco caught me...' Justine's face hardened. Why him?

"Justine, get your sweet ass out here, the Durmstrang's are stirring, we need our hostess!" Kris called down the stairs.

"You're gonna piss me off!" Justine's call floated back up the stairs. Past the Lounge, where the walls had been lined with Palm fronds, hibiscuses and magic Tiki torches, charmed to never actually burn anything, a lesson Kris had learned at his sixteenth birthday party when Saul had nearly burned down the Restaurant. The boathouse had been turned into music central, with Jacque hooked up to every speaker and camera on the boat. The room itself was covered all over with seemingly never ending strands of neon, black light tubing.

Up on deck there were similar decorations to the lounge, with clumps of palm fronds and tiki torches. Kris stood on the pool, which had been covered over with an unbreakable glass dance floor. Where once stood the lounge chairs, now there was a bar area. "I think I'm going to go check on the bedrooms, make sure the locking charm's all activate as people leave their rooms."

"Make sure the bathrooms are still accessible," Jeffery called, "or we may have some rather annoyed guests." Winking Jeffery headed up to the cushy lounge area to make sure the barriers were up, no-one enjoyed falling out of a boat, Kris mused.

Saul, Ax and Adam were working on the bar and munchies display, while Alyson and Tegan were both decked out in floral swimsuits, Alyson a bikini and Tegan a one piece, and grass skirts. They were merrily arguing the dance selection, Tegan arguing that 'the heel and toe is an integral part of every Australian celebration'. Kris left them to it and headed down stairs.

Justine wasn't in her room when he stuck his head in. He frowned and figured he'd lock the door anyway, just in case.

Wandering away twiddling his wand between two fingers he checked each of the boy's rooms, but when he came to Tanya's room the door handle turned. "Hello, hello, hope your not decent..." he began, but was cut off as the door slammed in his face with a loud exclamation of "Bugger off I'm adjusting a grass skirt here you perve!" That was undeniably Justine.

"Sorry," he called, completely not, "Just wanted to say we're on upstairs." The door snapped open in front of him and Justine stood there, tapping one foot gracefully, the skirt split from the thigh down, and was completely see through. "Bunny," he inquired calmly, "Where is the rest of that skirt?"

"You're looking at it." She stated blandly.

"Oh."

Tanya emerged, a grass skirt sitting on her hips, "Lets PARTY!"

Justine and Tanya headed upstairs together, laughing, and Kris was behind them, muttering about invisible skirts, as Tanya hadn't seemed to have noticed anything wrong with Justine's.

Ax looked at the pair of them as they arrived on deck. He scanned Justine's attire, and then looked at her. "Your uncle is coming to this party, remember?"

"Screw him," Justine replied, "Skirt is too cool. Besides, I'll blend," she walked over to the dock and cast a quick charm on the entrance to the boat.

"I don't think I want to know what that's going to do," Tanya muttered.

Justine grinned over her shoulder, "To you, nothing. You are perfect – we are all perfect. This is for those who unfortunately don't to know how to dress when coming to a party."

* * *

Draco wandered towards the boat, trying to blend in and appear as though he was _not_ about to break onto the Kallaix boat and crash the party. Harry, Hermione, Ron and a few of the other DC members had left the tower fifteen minutes ago, so he knew the boat would be leaving the docks at seven sharp. 

As he was approaching the dock, he saw the boat start to pull away and cursed softly. Then suddenly two blurs rushed past him, out along the dock. There was Padma Patil – little slut – and … had she found a new guy _already_? Ron didn't have black hair. They came to a halt.

Ok, maybe he did.

"JUSTINE!" Ron yelled, "BRING THE BOAT BACK!"

The music dimmed slightly as a couple of people came over to the railings, peering back. "It's a cabin cruiser you dick!" one of them yelled.

"Can you swim?" a suspiciously male voice enquired cheerily.

"Ignore Saul!" Tanya called.

"We're on our way hun!" Justine added.

"Hun?" Padma demanded, glaring at her boyfriend.

"She's Justine," Ron replied. "That's just what she does."

Draco smiled slightly in the shadows at the end of the dock, watching as the boat came back. This time he'd get on. Taking a hint from Ron, he waved a hand in front of his face, and his hair was suddenly black. He started down the dock, watching the boat come back.

He watched as Ron and Padma come in, and noted that the moment they entered the boat their clothes changed, and they had leis around their necks. Justine grinned at them in greeting, and spun them into the party. Draco raced forward at a dead run, leaping for the boat as it pulled away again, and just landing on the edge.

Walking through the gateway, Draco closed his eyes for a moment, hoping that nothing really bad would happen to his clothes. He opened his eyes and looked down. "Dammit," he muttered, "_He_ wears them." He was wearing silver and black board shorts – 'Billabong'. What the _hell_ was that?

"So Draco … you've gone black too?" Harry asked suppressing a grin. "I saw Ron come on … I take it you sneaked?"

"Not like I was going to miss it," Draco shrugged, changing his hair back to its natural blond with a wave of his hand.

"Have fun," Hermione said. "I think Justine wants to talk," she added to Harry, as Draco slipped away to 'mingle'.

* * *

"Hello?" Justine called for everyone's attention. She was hanging with one hand from the ladder that led up to the cushy area. "Ah, hello. Welcome to the Kallaix Academy Cabin Cruiser for our VICTORY PARTY! Firstly, I would like to say to the schools that we have so far competed against, it's been an _honour_. Except for those of you who chose to cheat – you know who you are." Everyone laughed a little at that. "OK, now the evening plan. There are four things which you all probably won't recognize, as they are, shall we say, a little "Occer" – or, overly Australian. First, the Barbeque. Kris and Saul are going to be our chefs for the evening." 

"WHO'S YOUR DADDY?" Kris yelled.

"I'M YOUR DADDY!" Saul yelled, while all the Thundreds students yelled happily, "Saul's your daddy!"

Justine rolled her eyes, "Stop corrupting them Ax," she said, getting a laugh. "Anyway, if, at any time during the evening, you get hungry. You, know, when your little tummies rumble and say 'go get me some food', just head over, grab some bread, and chose some meat. If you are vegetarian, pray you don't get hungry … or, ask for Tofu. In the meat, there's quite a range, but my favourite are 'Shrimps on the barbeque', or, in Occer terms, 'Prawns on the Barbie mate!'

"Next, you diss our music, or our dancing, and we throw you over the side of the boat. Australians do not accept discrimination, everyone can dance well. Yes, that is a dragon swimming along beside us. She tends to get angry when I do.

"Third," she held up three fingers, and it was obvious that she was using magic to hold herself up, "The legal drinking age in Australia, on private land, is sixteen. This boat is Australian territory," Seamus Finnegan immediately started cheering. "As Seamus has worked out, this means that you may drink to your hearts content, so long as you are over sixteen – and the bar will know."

"The bar knows all!" Saul bellowed. "The bar is _all powerful_," waving his hand in a circle with a look of pretended awe on his face.

"Just tell our wonderful barmen, Adam, what you want, and he will get it. He knows everything."

"Spent too much time hanging out with me," Kris sighed loudly. "She means _everything_."

"Lastly, the dancing. As Tanya, our little dancing queen, has reminded me, there are two traditional Australian dances. We will inflict two upon you at the very beginning, and then let you catch your breath with your own dancing style.

"The first we will do is the 'Heel and Toe'."

"It's an integral part of any Australian celebration!" Tegan yelled out.

"What she said," Justine agreed. "To start off with, I'm going to do the dance once with Kris, then all the Aussies will join in, and anyone who hasn't picked it up by the second stage is an idiot. Really. We have the lovely Alyson giving us music, and Tanya will be calling out the steps – listen to her. Take it away!"

She jumped down, and there were a few comments of 'damn she's fine' and one or two 'what is she wearing' especially from Severus Snape, who was over by the railing, watching with some small amount of interest.

Kris walked onto the dance floor, which was over the pool on unbreakable glass – they'd let Tegan at it, just to be sure. Alyson had started playing some incredibly pretty, slow music, and all of the guests were wondering if the dance could be 'normal'. Justine joined him there and curtseyed, Kris bowed and held out a hand, Justine accepted it, and suddenly the music went _nuts_.

Tanya, with a small microphone extending from her ear yelled, "Everybody ready now, one, two, three, four and heel and toe, heel and toe, slide…!"

Justine and Kris danced enthusiastically, and then the first round ended and Ax claimed Tanya, as Justine moved on to Saul, Tegan grabbing Kris, and the other Australians swirled onto the dance floor. For a moment, everyone wondered who would be taking over from Tanya, but quickly realized that she was going to keep calling out the steps, and as yet, was not even the slightest bit out of breath.

The next round, most people joined in, and Tanya kept on going with the calling out, never once missing a beat or sounding particularly out of breath. Eventually Justine and Tanya, who were dancing next to each other, found their partners to be Seamus and Leon.

As the round began, Seamus was dancing as enthusiastically as Justine, and Leon, being an Aussie, knew exactly what he was doing. "Some of the Brits have been having a hard time," he remarked to Tanya, and her microphone picked it up as she continued with the steps, "So I gave them a hand."

"Heel and toe, heel and toe, slide-good-slide-work-slide…" Tanya replied. Everyone started laughing, as Tanya managed to continue her conversation with Leon while she kept pace with the steps. Justine could be saying, "I wish I could do that – I'd be the best party hostess in Australia!"

By the end of the dance, all bar the Australians and a couple of others were completely out of breath and collapsing on the edge of the dance floor. Somewhere along the way, Justine had collected the twin of Tanya's microphone, and she grinned around the gathering, "Well, that was fun!" she said brilliantly, and everyone cheered.

"So, the next dance!" Everyone groaned, "Is a nice slow one," there were several sighs of relief. "It's called the 'Progressive Barn dance, and goes to the most beautiful piece of music, called The Pride of Erin."

"Woohoo! Go the Irish!" Seamus and Ax yelled together, bringing more laughter.

"This one is a little trickier, so just join in when you think you have it!" Justine told them. "Alyson, take it away! Tanya, you're on the prompts – think you're up to it?"

Tanya grinned back, "Always," she replied, and the Australians raised a cheer. Justine again moved to Kris but this time he held he closer, both facing the same direction, Kris's arm behind her back, her hand on his shoulder. They danced beautifully, as Tanya explained, "Music and sorcery is magic using music and rhythm, and it's a subject at our school..." Kris spun Justine out for the second time and Ax was there to take Justine as Tanya entered the dance with Kris.

* * *

Jacque stood to one side of the dance floor, filming all of the action, Justine was helping one of the Egyptian guys thought he dance, then she moved on and was caught by... oh god. Draco Malfoy. 

Justine smiled up at her new partner, and straight into a familiar pair of silver eyes. "Hello Draco." Did she just say that? How lame.

"Justine." He said with a raised eyebrow. "I saw you and your little lover dancing, I take it you're still together after all these years?"

Justine shook her head sadly, how dare he? "The funny thing about that is that I was never 'with' any of the other boys I've danced with this evening other than you, you just imagined I was, but I assume you're talking about Kristopher?" She asked as he spun her out.

As he re-caught her he said somewhere near her ear. "I told you never to lie to me about that. I know the truth. Besides, what about young Ronald?"

Justine glared up at him. "You never have the right, _ever_ to tell me what to do. My relationships are none of your business." And with that she spun away.

* * *

The party was raging, for lack of a better word, the music had now swung from the poppy sound of five minutes ago and settled into a rhythmic R+B sound, Justine had stolen Ron from Padma and was currently teaching him how to dance. "Good you're getting it!" She said loudly over the music. They were against one another, and she was teaching him how to move. 

"Go Ron!" Tanya yelled from the other side of them, where she was dancing with Leon. "I'm glad you came." She said to him.

"C'mon, like I've ever said no to you."Leon retorted with a grin.

"Well you never did tell me you were a wizard." She frowned at him in mock annoyance. Her mother had died when Tanya was born, and without her, her father had faded away until he died when she was five. Her grandparents had moved a nanny in to take care of her, but Tanya had been a hindrance on their perfect little world. Leon's family had lived next door and when he had seen how little love Tanya had, he had moved on in.

"Oh what was I meant to say, 'Tanya my dear as it turns out I'm a wizard and can do magic tricks with my wand'?"

"That's a start." Tanya said, "But I'll forgive you. When were you last home?"

"When I saw you in December, and I'm going home for Easter after we win the Tournament." He grinned down at her.

She pretended to punch him in the arm. "Punk. you know we're gonna win!" She gasped. "Of all the gall... I oughta..."

They spun into the crowd laughing, watched closely by Ax, who was sitting up in the cushy area with Tegan, some of the Egyptians and Seamus Finnegan. They were seated around a small, round table with a glass in front of them, and Ax was explaining the rules of his 'game'.

"Ok, so, all you have to do is say a drink, and the table will prepare enough for every glass on the table," he began, watching as Seamus nearly fell out of his seat in delight. "All members of the game _must_ drink all of the drinks provided, everyone choosing the drinks for one round, and if they cannot finish them, or pass out, they are out of the game. The one remaining is the Champion Drinker, and cannot be outsted from this position until the next time the game is played – generally at the next party.

"As the host, I get to start. Table, please provide us with Martini!" he said to the table, and instantly the glasses were filled. Everyone downed this drink with ease, and the game moved on to the next person, going in a clockwise direction around the table from Ax.

Seamus with much ceremony ordered Guinness for everyone and one of the Egyptian boys grinned and ordered white Russians. When it came time for Harry's turn he was feeling decidedly befuzzled, and said the first thing that popped into his head, "Fire Whisky."

Everyone on the table whooped at Harry's so-called bravery, none of them having had even gone near the drink. And Harry picked up the small glass of the fiery liquid, throwing back half before it touched his tongue. He managed to swallow with great difficulty and the group cheered gleefully as they all took their turn and drank.

Ax grinned. "You choose your drinks like you choose you women. You choose randomly, because it's the only thing you can think of, then choke at the big moment."

Harry spluttered, his face still flushed somewhat and glared at Ax, "_Did not"._

Seamus's eyes went wide and he whooped, "Do you mean the drink or the girl, cas' we all saw you chokin' on the drink!"

Harry flushed to a somewhat redder colour and mumbled, "Both" bringing cheers from the group and Tegan's somewhat louder and belated reply of, "You mean Hermione puts out?" as she threw back two fire whisky's like water and grinned wolfishly.

She had, of course, misjudged the volume of the music and her cry was heard all over the party. On the dance floor, Hermione looked up at Harry in shock and disappeared into the crowd, while Justine grinned and shook her head, making her way over to the stairs and over to the group.

"Harry, Darling, I don't think Hermione would appreciate it very much if you continued on this train of conversation so how's about you come and dance with us hmm?"

When Ax would have complained, protesting, "Hey we're laying a game here!" Justine shot him a look and he said "Yes ma'am submissively as Justine dragged Harry away.

* * *

Nymphadora Tonks stood on the wharf and watched as the white cabin cruiser sailed in lazy circles around the lake. She had to get on that boat; Dumbledore said Harry and Snape were on it. The problem was that she had to get past the serpentine dragon swimming alongside the boat. She cast a quick spell on herself to disillusion herself, then mounted her broom. She waited until the dragon was on the other side of the boat and flew like hell, landing at the gateway of the boat and shrinking down her broom, slipping it into her bag. 

The weirdest sensation settled over her skin as she passed through the gateway, sort of similar to when she used her metamorphmagus powers. She looked down and gasped, her skin was tanned, her hair was a bright honey blond, and she was wearing a red halter-necked bikini and short cut off jeans. "Oh god," she gasped as a magical lei lifted and swung itself around her neck.

There was a mass of people to one side of her, all bumping and grinding to the loud music blaring from the wheelhouse, all similarly attired to her with lei's. A guy was standing behind a Barbeque right in front of her, dancing around, wearing an apron that said "Kiss the chef!" and as she watched a black haired boy with blue eyes snuck over to him and charmed it to say "Kiss the chef - he's stuppid!".

A pretty blonde haired girl near her said to her red-haired companion, "Kris is picking on Saul again; this is going to be war."

Tonks walked over towards the other side of the boat, weaving between the tables where groups of people were sitting drinking. 'That kid can't be a day over sixteen' she thought to herself.

Up on a higher deck another group of youths were all sitting around laughing merrily, amongst them she recognised a few Hogwarts students. She had to admit this looked like a _kickass _party. The barman was raging; she laughed as he swung a liqueur bottle up into the air and caught it as it poured the appropriate amount into a glass, flipping it back onto a shelf. He was wearing a black turtleneck, jeans and had a red lei around his neck. Hang on... was that... _no...

* * *

_

Justine sat at a table next to the bar. About half an hour ago, just after she had saved Harry from making an ass of himself, Severus had taken over on the bar, and was having the time of his life, showing off his skills. "Go Severus" she called as he mixed her a drink.

He smirked at her, "I used to do this sort of thing when I was training in Potions. I got quite good at it, but I think maybe I'm out of practice..." he swung a bottle around his shoulders and caught it with his other hand.

Justine grinned and took a sip of her drink. "Mmmm... I think your nuts, this is yummy!"

Severus reached out and flicked a hair out of Justine's face. "Go join your friends."

Justine wandered back over to the table and sat down with Ron. They had been chatting for the last hour or so, and had almost caught up. Ron had told Justine about the Defence Council, and how they worked. Justine had told Ron all about Kallaix, and her life in Australia. Then again there had always been an easy connection between them.

_Ron Weasley entered the empty classroom and Justine's eyes shot up. To be frank she was hiding out. Harry Potter had just somehow cheated his way into the Triwizard tournament and the dorms were filled with partiers. She had gone straight to Severus after the feast and he had told her. Potter could not have done it._

_Ron's eyes widened and he went to leave again, looking like someone had run over his puppy._

_Justine's compassion got the better of her and she walked over to him and asked, "Ron, are you ok?" _

_"He cheated and he didn't even tell me! I might have gotten a chance..." Ron suddenly looked up and noticed who he was talking to. "I'm sorry; I don't want to lay my troubles on you. Especially you."_

_Justine smiled. "I'm aware that you don't particularly like my family, but that shouldn't effect me. I'm just offering you an ear, not a lecture or detention."_

_Ron had softened to her that night, and they had chatted until late. Her advice to Ron had been to ask Harry outright, if he lied, to handle the situation then. "Oh no! We have to get back to the Tower, now!" he said _

_"Yep, or we might not catch the end of the party!" Justine said mockingly as she got to her feet._

_"Justine... I was wondering if you want to have lunch with me one day?" Ron asked_

_"I'd love to..."_

"So, I think we were talking about the Umbridge woman." Justine said.

"Oh, don't get me started on that one again..." Ron groaned. "She was hell that one!"

Justine grinned an evil little grin, "So then, tell me about Padma, you're looking _very_ comfortable. Tell me, is it serious?" Justine watched in delight as Ron went delicately pink and quiet. "Ron! Is it serious or not?"

"Not for me...well... she... I mean. At first I only went out with her because I wanted to make Hermione an all the girls notice me, then it was more a physical thing..." Ron broke off as Justine broke out laughing,

"Don't try and put a floss on it! You used her for her body!" Justine giggled delightedly as Ron tried to get a hand over her mouth. "You man-whore!"

It was the pointed cough from very close nearby that brought them back to attention, "When you two focus... I just got Saul so royally. It was beautiful. Come see."

Justine got up and went to put an arm around Kris who led her over to the barbeque. Saul's apron now read "Kiss me - I'm stuppid!". Ron and Justine laughed all the way to the dance floor.

* * *

Severus was enjoying himself. This pretty much _never_ happened anymore, but somehow he was smiling. Kristopher had charmed Saul's apron with a beautiful little bit of magic, and now was heading towards the crowd laughing with Justine and The Weasley. He reminded himself that he couldn't choose Justine's friends for her, but decided to be extra nasty to Ron in an effort to get rid of him. He flipped a bottle in the air and let it pour into a glass, earning himself applause from a few people, and as he looked up he spotted her. 

What was the Order doing here? What does she want?

She approached the bar and was looking him up and down. He _hated_ women who did that, did they have no class? "Severus?" She asked unsurely.

"Nymphadora." He resounded drolly. "Did you want something or was this a social visit?"

"I was looking for you and Harry actually, I've some news, but look at you, don't you look radical!" She looked at him with wide eyes.

Severus sighed, "Potter is up on the dance floor with my niece and Weasley." He gestured in the general direction of the dance floor to where Justine, Harry, Ron and Alyson were all dancing in a group, spinning around and bopping, as was directed by the song that Jacque was playing. '_I'm spinning around, move outta my way..._'. Sighing he asked, "Do you want a drink?"

Tonks smiled. Was Severus Snape being civil to her? Dumbledore said that the presence of his niece made him a different man. "I'll have a Butterbeer?" She asked, unsure, but was never as shocked in her entire life as she was when _Snape_ smiled and called her a 'chicken.'

She accepted the drink, taking her first sip when a young stunner with darkest brown hair and flashing green eyes popped over the bar, kissed Severus and said "Sevie my love, another of the strawberry things!"

She chocked, swallowing her drink, which was _not_ Butterbeer down the wrong hole. She was even more shocked when she turned and found herself being patted on the back by Harry. "Harry!" she gasped.

"Hey Tonks!" he said. "How are you?"

"Well," she said quietly, under the hub of the voices of the five or so teens who had descended on Severus and the girl she was supposing was his niece, "I think Severus is losing his mind, or is really drunk, and I really hope that's his niece!"

Harry looked like he was about to explode from laughing, but he kept it in check and quipped, "He is quite sober, and that's Justine. She has a certain influence on him, I'm just starting to get used to it!"

Tonks looked at Harry. He in no way resembled the boy she had last seen at the train station in September. He was laughing, smiling. Tonks realised he was having a trouble free good time, and was glad, he deserved it. "I gotta meet the girl who can tame the Snivellus beast."

A voice behind her quite contritely answered her "Well, after that she may not want to meet you." Justine was staring at her with one eyebrow raised and Tonks realised a song had ended and Justine had heard her. "I know you may not get along with my uncle, but that was just rude."

Kris stepped froward and held out a hand. "Kris, charmed. Don't diss the uncle, she's got his temper and is all attached to him and stuff."

Tonks shook the boy's hand. "Tonks. I was just commenting on her ability to make everyone come out of their shells."

Everyone settled then. Justine said with a flourish "I must dance or die!" and dragged Ron back to the dance floor. Most of them had followed, Tonks saw Kris take over from Severus, who moved towards her.

"Now that we've established your new approval of me, shall we dance?"

"Together?" She asked, wide eyed.

"No, I'm asking you to go dance with someone else in an effort to shut you up." He drawled, loosing his patience and walking away.

Tonks ran after him and said, "Severus, I'd love to."

Justine grinned as Severus and Tonks danced, secretly glad he had danced with her first and was no longer looking like a retarded marionette from the seventies.

* * *

Downstairs Adam was cruising around the partiers, trying to find Jeffery, who he had been playing air hockey with. "Probably in some broom cupboard with Jacque" he mused to himself. 

"Who?" asked Oliver Wood from the table. He was waiting for his turn on the air table. Adam glanced over at Oliver. Now there was someone who he wouldn't mind spending time in a broom cupboard with, he thought silently.

"Jeffery, the guy I was playing with, he seems to have um... disappeared with his girlfriend." Adam said with mock embarrassment.

Oliver smiled "Well, if your even half as good at air hockey as you are at leading your Quidditch team, I think you might be able to take me on."

"Well, someone's cocky! Your self assurance will let you down boyo!" Adam smiled as he picked up the puck, "Lets go!"

* * *

Justine was bouncing and feeling decidedly tipsy and happy. She _never_ got drunk; she stopped drinking when she reached this point, her annoying self control kicking in. All the people around her were also revelling in the new fun atmosphere at Hogwarts. This was a first. 

Harry and Hermione were near her, jumping up and down, enjoying themselves enormously. Harry had lost the shadowed look he carried lately, and Justine was glad she at least part to blame for that, although he did look weird in board shorts and a pink lei.

Tegan was dancing with her and Ron, and seemed to be rather... liking the new black hair. She had been the one to start the rock and roll part of the evening, turning the dance floor into a veritable moshpit. She had the constitution of an ox, and it took a fair bit to knock her usually, being a werewolf, but she had not eaten dinner and was now thoroughly pissed. She had yelled something about Saul, Ax and Seamus teaching her a wicked good drinking game.

Alyson was next to Harry and they were singing along to the old Muggle song at the top of their lungs... "_Its a long way to the top if you wanna rock and roll... _"

Tegan was dancing around and generally having fun when Justine yelled in her ear, "Honey, don't you think you have enough to drink already?"

"You're right! I'll be at the bar!" She said before weaving through the crowd to refill her glass. It was a good thing that Kris had taken over the bar from Severus. Whereas Snape wouldn't have given her another drink, Kris's policy was that 'If you can still walk you can still drink'. Tegan smiled as Kris handed her a now full glass and she weaved off back through the crowd to find Ron. There was just something about him at the moment; she wasn't quite sure if the alcohol was enhancing certain animal desires or if it was just alcohol in general.

After a few minutes of wondering through the crowd her glass was empty again so she headed back to the bar only to find Justine was already there, figuring where Justine was Ron shouldn't be far off so she headed over and settled herself next to Justine. She had decided Ron was 'fun'.

"Where's Ron?" Tegan asked.

"He went to the bathroom; he'll be back in a minute." Justine said grinning evilly.

Tegan just stuck her tongue out. At that moment she got a nose full of pheromones with Harry's scent attached.

"Finally, Harry and Hermione are getting freaky." she muttered aloud.

Justine looked over her shoulder and her jaw dropped, "Uh... shit"

"What?" Tegan twisted her head to look and saw Harry dancing very _very_ closely with... Alyson? Oh dear, taking another whiff she thought that perhaps she might just be seeing things, unfortunately her eyes did not deceive, it really was Alyson she could smell the faint whiff of unicorn and nothing else.

Also at that moment Kris spotted her and leaned over to them. "Alyson and Harry are drunk, we need a distraction. HEY SAUL! GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE!"

Saul quickly wove through the crowd closely followed by Ax. When they reached the bar they huddled with Kris while Justine and Tegan sat there feeling left out and slightly miffed.

"Why do they have to always huddle and leave us out? That is so shitty" Justine said.

Tegan just held up a hand for silence and listened intently to the boys. Suddenly she just started to laugh as Saul broke away from the group.

"Tribute!" Tegan gasped, "They are going to do Tribute."

"No!" Justine said with shock.

They both turned and watched Kris as the music was suddenly cut off. There were protests from the people still dancing.

"Gadies and Lentlemen!" He cried. Everyone stared at him standing up on the bar with Ax sitting next to him with a guitar.

_"This is the greatest and Best song in the world. Tribute._

_A long time ago me and my friend Ax here, we was hitchhiking down a long and lonesome road_

_When all of a sudden there shined a shiny demon in the middle of the road_

_And he said! Play the best song in the world... or I'll eat your souls_.

_So me and Ax, we looked at each other and we each said... ok._

_And we played the first thing that came to our heads and it just so happened to be the best song in the world... it was the best song in the world! Look into my eyes and it's easy to see one and one makes two and two and one makes three it was destiny..._

_Once every hundred thousand years or so when the sun doth shine and moon doth glow and the grass doth grow._

_Needless to say, the beast was stunned, WHIP CRACK went his whippy tail and the beast was done._

_He asked us, snort, be you angels and we said nay! WE ARE BUT MEN! _ROCK!"

Kris was having the time of his life. He had a pleasant enough voice but he was so full of energy and charisma that you couldn't tear your eyes off him. Ax was just playing and grinning at the ladies, who all swooned in turn. Saul had scared the shit out of every one by whipping his wand to make the sound of a whip in the song.

"_This is not, the greatest song in the world no, this is just a tribute. Couldn't remember the greatest song in the world no no this is just a tribute! Oh! to the greatest song in the world, it was the greatest song in the world!"_

Without warning the guitar stopped and Ax and Kris broke out in incredibly cool accapella.

"_And the peculiar thing my friend is this, the song we sang on that fateful night it didn't actually sound anything like this song! No this is just a tribute, you gotta believe me, and I wish you were there, it's just a matter of opinion!"_

They finished off the song with full blown head banging and screaming, Ax overdoing the guitar to the delight of the crowd.

When they were done, Saul put on the music again and everyone moved back to what they were doing. Kris jumped down to give an ecstatic Justine hugs and Tegan grins. Ax calmly moved to a group of girls that were _dying_ to dance with him.

"I think the distraction worked, Harry is now dancing with Hermione again," Tegan said without even looking.

"How the hell can you pick out just two of the scent at a party like this?" Justine asked a little astonished.

"Practice" Tegan said with a grin and a shrug.

Ron, who had emerged to put an arm around Tegan and Justine during the performance finished his drink with a flourish and grinned, "I think, to quote Justine, we must dance or die."

"YEAH!" Tegan and Justine yelled, and they moved back to the dance floor.

* * *

As the night wore on, Tanya danced every dance with Ax, because it was fun, and no one else was asking her to dance – as she too short to be able to see Ax's face half the time, she didn't realise that this was because he was glaring venomously at anyone who looked even remotely like they were going to try and take Tanya from him. He knew that if someone else asked her dance, she would. 

Finally, however, Draco Malfoy – how the hell had he gotten on the boat anyway? – strode over, and bowed politely to Tanya in a break of the music, "would you care to dance?" he enquired.

"Get fucked," Ax told him in no uncertain terms.

Tanya glared at Ax, "Don't be possessive," she snarled at him, and then turned to smile and courtesy to Draco, "I'd love to."

The music started again to a slow dance, and the pair of them whirled out onto the floor, "Just so you know, I'm only doing this to stop Ax being so possessive," Tanya told Draco calmly. "He doesn't have any claim on me, and I intend to make sure he _knows it_."

"That's fine," Draco said quickly, "I just thought it would be churlish to leave you saddled with one man for the entire evening."

"Well, I've only been dancing with him for an hour," Tanya said, "But it was sweet of you to notice."

"So, if you and Ax are supposed to be a happy little couple, what's up with Justine and Kris? They are still together, I take it?" Draco enquired, trying to be subtle.

"Oh no," Tanya said airily, "They're like brother and sister – them going out would seriously be like incest to any of our group! You've been reading way too many newspapers, they get it all wrong! They were dared to kiss each other for five minutes once, and spent the next _three hours_ brushing their teeth and saying 'ew' – Justine said Kris tried to eat her."

"So who is she with? Ax?"

"Hell no! He's way too much of a playboy – Justine demands respect. But she sacrificed love for power before I even met her. Justine never loved since some bastard here at Hogwarts broke her heart."

"I broke her heart! What about me? _She_ broke _my_ heart by cheating on me, not the other around!"

Tanya disentangled herself from his arms and backed away fast, "It was _you_? _That'_s why you were perving?" she demanded, then thought about what he'd said, "Justine wouldn't _cheat_ on anyone – she's one of the most straight-forward people I know! If she was going to go out with someone, she'd have broken up with her old boyfriend first … but Justine falls in love forever – she still loves you, if you are Draco, she could never love anyone else … even if you destroyed her."

Suddenly Tegan, who'd come down when she saw Draco had stolen Tanya, and Alyson, who'd noticed what was going on as well, came up to them. Alyson wrapped a hand around Tanya's mouth, and Tegan started pushing the two of them away from each other.

Down below deck, Tanya finally managed to free herself from her two friends, "What was that about?" she asked.

"You just told Draco Malfoy that Justine still loves him," Tegan said, but realised that, with Ax as a dancing partner, Tanya had probably had too much to drink anyway, so it wasn't _completely_ her fault.

Through a slightly drunken stupor, Tanya had a moment of clarity, "Oh dear," she murmured, then smiled woozily, and slumped against Tegan, as the drink really got to her.

"You need to go to bed," Tegan remarked, "and don't worry, I won't tell Justine about this – as long as you promise to never talk to Draco again."

Tanya nodded drunkenly, and Tegan took her to bed, casting the Soberitis charm before she did. Tanya gave a pained groan, then fell asleep.

* * *

"OK everyone – it's one o'clock in the morning, we have the Quest on in the morning, so y'all get lost!" Kris yelled. He wasn't sure where Justine had gone, so had decided to take on a rare moment of responsibility and get the guests off to bed. A few people had left already, but it was time to get the masses back to where ever they were supposed to be. 

"The boat is now pulling into the pier, and when you walk through the entrance way the spell that changed your clothes will wear off, and you'll all get sober way too fast," Kris smiled slightly, noticing that many people were already grimacing. "I wouldn't bother trying to avoid it, cos' one of us will get you with the charm if you try and escape the inevitable."

This was said as more than one person was eying the handrails, with the obvious intention of jumping into a freezing cold lake. Kris didn't think this would be good for them, even if it would provide a good laugh. With expressions Kris would expect to see on the faces of those watching the Apocalypse approaching, the crowds began to move for the exit.

Once everyone was off the boat, Kris realised that he was, in fact, the only Australian still standing, everyone else having apparently gone to bed hours ago. He yawned widely and headed for the stairs. Suddenly Justine's latest little 'pet' appeared.

"Master Kristopher, Winky wishes to ask your permission for her to clean the boat. I is having a quick nap so that I is being ready to start as soon as the Little Miss's party was over, but I is not sure that Little Miss is wanting me to clean, as Little Miss did not leave Winky with any instructions … but Winky so _wants_ to clean, and thought perhaps Master Kristopher would be giving her permission …" he was faced with large, hopeful eyes peering over a squashed tomato nose.

"Yeah, sure … and you know, if you _really_ want to clean, you could even go downstairs and polish the tables," Kris said, a little sarcastically.

He was incredibly surprised when the house elf threw herself at him and hugged him around the knees, looking as if Christmas had come early. "Master Kristopher is too kind to poor Winky, and Winky is undeserving of the honour he is giving her!" she cried.

"Right," Kris mumbled. "Look, Winky … if you ever want to clean, just … go ahead, ok? Stay out of Saul's room though, he likes the mess … and if you could like … let me go, I really want to get some sleep."

Winky let go of him and jumped back as if burned, "I is sorry Master Kristopher!" she squeaked, "I is stopping you from getting rest! I is very sorry and will not do so again! Winky is a very bad house elf and will try to improve!" she curtseyed and rushed off to start to cleaning.

Shaking his head slightly, Kris staggered downstairs to his room. He fingered his wand, wondering if he could just … leave the Soberitis charm tonight. Before he had a chance to ignore the urge, there was a sound behind him and he was struck with the charm.

"I thought I'd remove the temptation," Ax smirked at him, still pretty much completely sober, since he could drink with best of them. Kris groaned, as the hangover was already taking effect. "Sleep tight!" Ax called jovially, closing the door to Kris's room far too loudly.

* * *

Tegan woke, not sure what had woken her. _Now_ she supposed she could be glad that Ax had caught her before she fell asleep without casting the Soberitis charm, though she didn't realise that he had caught Kris not long after she had happily passed out. 

Deciding that _something_ must have happened for her to wake up this early, Tegan dragged herself out of bed and went to investigate. As she walked up on deck, she stared around in amazement – hadn't this place been a pigsty when she left last night?

"Can Winky help you miss?" a voice squeaked, making Tegan jump. Looking around, she saw a house elf in a miniature Kallaix uniform, and remembered that Justine had rescued 'Winky' from Hogwarts.

"No, I'm fine," she said, sniffing the air experimentally. She had noticed the smell that one reeked of after sexual interaction, but, being well accustomed to attending parties with Ax, she hadn't paid it any attention until now … but … she sniffed again – that didn't smell like Ax at _all …_ in fact like …

_No_.

She flew downstairs, following her nose straight passed Ax's room and to the library. She knocked loudly on the door, then barged in.

"Look who got freaky!" she sang out.

Severus Snape glared balefully at her, adjusting hastily thrown on clothes. "I don't what you're talking about," he said with dignity.

"_Severus_ got freaky?" an amazed, and delighted, voice called from the doorway. Ax looked through the door, looking as if he was trying not to laugh, "Nothing against you, mate, but … who with?"

Tegan started sniffing at the air, as Severus glared at Ax, "_No one_," he replied.

"Don't try and play innocent," Tegan grinned, "You positively _reek_ of her!"

"Of who?"

* * *

_Now for the thank's to all of the marvelous people who read our story! WE LOVE YOU! grin_

_Hexe - _Tisk, tisk, thou shalt not ask about Draco and Justine, cause i wont tell (grin) Yes, we cheated, we broke into Dumbledores office, GASP! (chuckles) well we were evening the playing feild so to speak. Dont worry, it doesnt help us much... (Talk to you on Gaia!)

_Ava_ - Oh hunny, i hope you feel better and im glad we made your day a little brighter! The ego's will come crashing down, just you see!

_Dark672 -_ Im glad you like the story! Thankyou so much for your reveiw!

_goDDark -_ Hey Gabbie! Thanks for Reviewing! Send over the charchater thingy and we'll give you a cameo ok! (hugs nad kisses) OI! I think you said Julian.

_The evil percussionist -_ Thankyou for everything, once again! YAY you quoted me! Send me back 16 and 17 soon k? DidI give you 17? LAH rocks!

_Queen Of the Jungle_ - (Princess runs over to roll with her) Im so glad you liked it Queenie! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

_Changeresque_ - Thanks for the review! Chat to you soon k?


	10. The Quest

_This one is for the third Craaaaaazy Aussie, the ever adorable if slightly moody **Shadow Wolf**, Aka Tegan - This Chapter (the Kallaixians in the quest) was her baby - We hope you like what we did with it, Kisses!_

* * *

Chapter Ten: **_Quest_**

At a shocking six thirty Justine was woken by the insistent tapping of an owl on the window of her bedroom. Blearily she opened one eye and tried to roll over to ignore the tapping, but it continued and increased in volume until she was forced answer. She opened her eyes and yawned, then shook her head and got up to let the bird inside, along with a burst of chilly, British air. She grabbed the blanket from her bed and bundled up hastily, cringing at the sudden cold temp, due to the climate control on the ship she had been enjoying comfortable warmth. Sleepily, she took the note that the bird offered her.

_Dear Justine Snape, _

_Please present yourself, along with Alyson Deveréaux, at Professor Albus Dumbledore's office upon receiving this note. Make yourself as presentable as possible._

There was no signature, and all Justine could say for sure was that it had not been Severus who sent the note, as it was not his writing. Throwing on the formal Kallaix uniform, which was a white collared shirt and a pleated white shirt, and a black v necked jumper with the school crest on the breast, then she went to wake Alyson, and the two of them made their way noisily upstairs – their version of a wake up call.

They wandered through the empty, silent halls of Hogwarts, until they reached the gargoyle that marked the entrance to Professor Dumbledore's study. "Wonder what the password is," Justine remarked. "It's probably changed since the last time we came here."

"Lemon Drop," a female voice said from behind them, they spun around to see Hermione approaching. "It was changed last week." She smiled a tentative greeting at the two Australians, "Good party last night, thanks for inviting me."

"You're welcome," Justine said, "You should see some of the parties we have back home … _raging_." The three of them walked up the staircase together. "So I'm guessing we've been called here to be the person who… for something to do with the Quest."

"It's very likely…" Hermione said as they approached the very door, Justine had broken through yesterday. "What do you know about the Quest? It's meant to be very hush hush."

"Well, we did a lot of supposing." Justine said lamely

"And we guessed some stuff…" Alyson said truthfully.

Thought the door Albus Dumbledore stood surrounded by six others. "Well the last of our little group has arrived at last. Ladies and Gentlemen, your role in the Quest today will be that of the rescued. Eight of you will be put under a simple sleeping spell, and you will be left in a clearing in the forest. During this portion of the Quest the contestants will have to get past three dragons and retrieve you. You have no need to fear." He added as the South African girl paled. "We will have teachers just inside the tree line to protect you."

Hermione seemed to be perplexed, "Professor, there are nine here, but you said only eight of us will be sleeping."

Alyson suddenly had a moment of clarity. "Justine won't be sleeping."

"Vhat do you mean, you von't be sleeping?" The Durmstrang boy asked.

"Justine is the Head Girl of Kallaix Academy, Australia, and when she took on the role of the Head of that school something truly remarkable happened as always does, she has gained some control over the draconic kind." Dumbledore said, eyes twinkling.

"So I'll be there playing babysitter." Justine finished.

"Well actually we are having some trouble with the dragons, and will need you to take on more of a commanding role." Said Minerva McGonagall as she entered the room.

"Let's go!" Justine replied. "What breeds am I working with?"

"Your own House dragon, The Wentworth and another from your school, Steelwell. Also a Norwegian Ridgeback."

"You brought _Steelwell_?" Justine demanded. "Steelwell's a stuck up snob! You'd be better of with Kris who he actually _respects_ ... of course, he can't control Wentworth easily..."

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled madly, "I'm sure you'll do a remarkable job," he told her. "Minerva will show you to the dragons, in a moment. The rest of you are here because you have been chosen as the most beloved of your schools, and part of the Quest asks for someone to be sleeping to be rescued from the dragons, and to be guided, unconscious, through the rest of the maze. I'm afraid that if you do not wish to be involved with this, your school will not be able to participate ... your roles here are irreversible."

Everyone in the room nodded quickly, none of them were prepared to forfeit the seventy possible points that the Quest could win for them. "For all but one of the schools, a Head student, generally the female of the pair was chosen, for obvious reasons ... of course, for Kallaix this was impossible, as the Head Girl, was needed elsewhere."

"Alyson is more ... loved than I am anyway," Justine said, "I'm probably more respected, but she's the lovable one."

Dumbledore smiled slightly, "Well, since we don't have any problems, let's head down to the dragon grove - remember, with Justine accompanying us, we are perfectly safe!" with that, he stood up and lead the procession down to the forest.

Justine and Electra were walking last, chatting quietly together; Alyson was up the front with Hermione, also talking. They walked through the forest, with most of the students shivering and looking around fearfully - Justine wasn't scared, knowing that there were _three_ of the Kallaix dragons here, within her call if necessary.

Then the roaring began, as Dumbledore, Alyson and Hermione walked into a clearing where the dragons were being kept. Justine immediately began pushing everyone ahead of her _trying_ to get to the clearing before any of the dragons did anything dangerous.

When she made it, an unfamiliar black dragon was getting ready to breath fire, though the two Kallaix dragons seemed happy enough to just roar. Justine stalked into the centre of the clearing, propped her hands on her hips and spoke in English for the benefit of her human company.

"SIT!" she thundered, and they all immediately did so, the black dragon looking rather confused, Wentworth and Steelwell looking resigned.

_McEwen told us that we were only supposed to leave the brooding black haired one and the flaming hair children - has Tanya multiplied_? Wentworth asked.

"No, Tanya hasn't breed yet - those are the Weasley's," Justine replied.

_None of these are red heads - she's a _blonde Wentworth said, extending a claw to point at Alyson, who glared at him.

"Excuse me?" she said, mimicking Justine's pose.

_Oh, apologies Alyson_, Wentworth said, retreating the claw and looking down in shame.

"You're forgiven," Alyson smiled widely at her house dragon, which cheered it up immensely.

"Well, now that the dragons seem to be under control, could all of you please go and lie on your beds, over there, so that I might place the charm on you," Dumbledore addressed the rest of the group. "Justine, you'll have to make yourself comfortable - we hadn't thought to prepare for you, as we didn't think that we would need to."

Justine rolled her eyes and turned pleading eyes to the Wentworth dragon, almost immediately it lay down, arranged itself so that one of its legs was extended away from its body, Justine lay down, sprawled over the dragons leg, and Steelwell lay down beside her, spreading one wing over to cover her.

Dumbledore, having placed the charm on the other students, looked enquiringly at her. "It's ten to seven and it was a long party and I had every intention of sleeping in this morning, since I wasn't supposed to _be_ involved with the Quest," she told him, "Excuse me," with that she closed her eyes and was asleep before Dumbledore had left the clearing.

* * *

Harry stirred and opened his eyes, reaching out one hand to absently pat the area beside him. His hand hit the bed, rather than the warm body he had been expecting, and Harry sat up fast. The sheets on his bed were tousled and messy, but he was definitely the only person there.

"Hermione?" he asked, keeping his voice soft as he looked for his girlfriend. She had been there the night before, when they'd gotten back from the party. He remembered only because he hadn't really _wanted_ her there. Somehow he didn't like spending time with her as much as he had before. But she had insisted that they should sleep together to try 'make up' for the bad mood that 'both of them seemed to have been in lately'.

Then again, since they slept in the DA tower these days, and when they had first come into the tower, they had decided to share a room, rather than have separate ones. Now Harry was starting to regret that, although he did admit that it was good being able to share the warmth on the colder nights over Christmas break.

He and Hermione had been sharing a bed for the past several months now, although nothing ever really happened, and both of them were reasonably happy to keep it that way. Harry more so than ever now. Draco had been urging Harry to take it further, but Harry was fairly sure that this was just Draco being Draco and pretending that he'd been everywhere and done everything, and was therefore entitled to give advice to everyone else … wanted or not.

He was fairly sure Draco hadn't ever actually done anything either, and was just trying to show off, but he kept quiet, avoiding the arguments that would ensue if he called Draco to task on the fact.

Still, that wasn't aiding his wondering about Hermione. He slipped out of bed and pulled his robes hastily over his boxers and t-shirt, a silent charm calling light into the room. There was no sign of Hermione. The clothes she'd worn to the party were still sitting, neatly folded on the floor beside her bed. Her habit of folding the clothes that she had been wearing was something that Harry laughed at her about every night. His own robes were simply tossed on the floor each night, which Hermione constantly admonished him about.

Looking around, he deduced that Hermione was not in the room, and must have left without much warning, because otherwise she would have dressed. She was incredibly self-conscious, and usually did her best to be fully dressed before Harry had even

woken up properly.

Slipping out of his room, Harry went next door to Draco's room and shook his brother awake. Draco opened his eyes blearily, hand going to his wand, and muttered something sleepily, to the effect of hurting Harry for waking him up.

"Have you seen Hermione?" Harry asked straight over Draco's half-formed protestations at being woken up. "She was gone when I woke up … she must have left in a hurry."

"So you finally took my advice and tried something, and you were so bad that you made her run off? Well done," Draco muttered caustically.

"Ouch," Harry remarked, "What happened to make you so bitchy?"

"You don't want to know," Draco replied, burying his face under his pillow. "Now f-off. I don't care where your girlfriend is."

Harry looked at Draco, "I'll talk to you again when you're civil," he told his brother and left the room. Something pretty significant must have occurred the night before – while Draco could be incredibly nasty when he wanted to be, he very rarely lost his temper at Harry.

Harry walked around the tower looking for Hermione, but was unable to find her anywhere he looked. Readying his wand, he returned to Draco's room, and found that his brother hadn't moved since he had left. "Draco, I don't care what happened last night, but you're going to get up now and help me think where Hermione has gone," Harry said, just as Ron slammed into the room.

"What are you doing still sleeping?" he demanded, "The Quest starts in an hour!"

"Plenty of time," Draco muttered, not looking up, but Harry looked stricken.

"Draco, what were we doing with the hostages in the Quest?" Harry asked.

"Don't care," was the reply.

"Argh!" Harry yelled, then wheeled around, shoved past Ron and returned to his own room. Why was no one being helpful this morning? He could only assume that Hermione _had_ been chosen as the Quest hostage, which set his mind to rest about _where_ she was. Now, if only he could remember what was going to happen to the Quest hostages, he would be a little bit happier. He knew that they were in some form of danger, although he wasn't sure if they would actually be in a position to get _hurt_. It could be that there was something dangerous near them …

Harry shook his head as he redressed in clothes somewhat more appropriate for the Quest and returned to find Ron and Draco downstairs, Draco snarling at Ron, who seemed more than a little amused. Ron's amusement was clearly not making Draco any happier.

"What happened?" Harry asked with a sigh, realising immediately that if he didn't step in, Ron and Draco would be at each other's throats very quickly.

"I woke him up," Ron said innocently.

"Your methods were completely uncalled for!" Draco yelled back. Harry noticed that Draco's hair was damp, and immediately deduced that Ron had used some form of water to wake Draco up.

"If he dumped water on you, how are you so dry now?" he asked tiredly.

"He started glowing black, and his eyes went all glowy" Ron admitted, "And the water on him turned mostly to steam. I didn't hang around after that, figured it wasn't good for my overall health."

"No, it wouldn't have been," Harry said, feeling a lot more troubled than he let show. If Draco was losing control of his emotions and letting his magic escape from him, then all was _not_ good. In fact, things were rather dangerous. Still, he wouldn't have time to confront Draco over those changes until a later date, he figured.

"I've calmed down now," Draco said, before Harry could ask, "I'm going to go and get ready for the Quest … but Weasley had better watch himself when he goes to sleep from now on …" the threat in Draco's voice wasn't even remotely hidden. Harry wasn't sure how far Draco would take revenge, but he was very glad that he wasn't Ron. Draco rarely forgave without getting his revenge first, and he didn't forget.

"Good, I'll meet you down in the Great Hall for breakfast," Harry said, his stomach suddenly churning faintly. He wondered what he had dreamed up to put himself through in the Quest, and wasn't sure that he wanted to remember. After all, he hadn't wanted to make it too easy, that much he could recall.

"Damn," he muttered to himself, "I wish I hadn't agreed to let Dumbledore take away my memories of this."

* * *

Tegan had been rudely awakened this morning at seven so that she would be ready in time. I mean honestly, what did they take her for, she wasn't Justine who took fifteen minutes just to do her hair, all she did was shove on her uniform shirt and her blue McEwan jumper, then pull on her uniform pants and tie her hair out of her face, thanking whoever was watching over her that it seemed to be behaving today. She had fallen back to sleep after catching Severus at about six thirty and had completely forgotten about the Quest. She heard later; when she was properly awake, that Kris and Ax did paper, scissors, rock to figure out who would have to wake her up again. It turned out to be Ax, which was a good thing because he had reflexes good enough to block the sudden swipe she had aimed at him.

Now it was 7:30 and she was waiting in the Kallaix event tent with Kris, Ax and Jacque, off to one side hovering over the coffee percolator waiting for it to be finished. She didn't like to conjure her coffee, so she made what she called 'the real stuff', instant coffee was nasty. The rest of the Kallaix students were hanging out in the tent behind Jacque, some helping her with the equipment. Other yawning and laying against one another. To one side of the tent, in an area which had gone up to today as an unnoticed 'garden' area of the forest, a huge maze was set, with fifteen foot tall leafy walls. It seemed ominous to Tegan's cotton wool filled head, sort of eerie, as the tree line and maze cast deep shadows across the dew covered tents, hiding the early morning sunshine.

She was suddenly aware of heated whispering behind her. She tuned into the present and listened, her everyday sense of hearing excellent from her, uh, condition each full moon.

"… look just go and give her a hug. She needs one." a familiar adult voice said, she couldn't put her finger on which it was...

"Are you kidding? She is not a morning person! If I tried to give her a hug I'll get turned into a newt or something! Newts live in RIVERS! Swim around in water full of pollution! Don't get decent root or anything... just die." she heard Kris say in a very similar voice.

"You know he's right," Ax said, "It actually happened once. Some guy cut in front of her one morning; she whipped out her wand and turned him into a roach. She was about to step on him but the teachers saved his life. She was on detention for about a month, but she said she would do it again if need be." Tegan snorted to herself quietly, that little butthead had cut in and taken the last of the donuts. In her opinion he got off lightly.

"I heard about that, I didn't think it was true though. Good Lord. But she wouldn't do it to me, I'm the Minister of Magic and her favourite adopted uncle. _I'm special._" Gregory Crompton sounded smug.

Tegan recognised the voice now and sighed, true she wouldn't do it to him but she was still not in any mood to be hugged. She spun around and wandered over to the trio, "Hi Greg, how are ya?"

"I'm good, but you look like you need a hug, and these pansy's aren't up to hugging a real girl." blue eyes twinkling out from a smiling face, Greg resembled his son in many ways, most of all his eyes.

"Oh fine," Tegan said with a sigh of exasperation.

She gave him a hug then winked back to the boys. Kris just gaped and pouted, "How come he gets a hug and I don't? Can I have a hug?"

"No." Tegan said flatly

"Don't you want a hug from me?"

"No."

"Aww come on." Kris said walking up to her with arms spread.

She whipped out her wand and put the point under his chin and said, "No."

"Fine, I feel so rejected."

"You'll live, if only to piss me off," Tegan muttered putting her wand away and walking into the tent.

* * *

Five minutes later a loud voice boomed across the clearing, "Will all participants of the Quest please make their way to the far side of the clearing? Thank you."

Tegan forced herself into a slightly better frame of mind. They walked over to where a crowd was quickly growing. They pushed themselves to the front of the crowd where they saw Harry standing on a podium. Around it were some adults including Greg so she figured these must all be the Ministers of Magic for each country represented by a school.

"Good Morning," Harry called out, "I just though you would all like to know the scores as they stand now.

"I must say they are close but in first place we have Kallaix Academy with 133 points." he paused for a moment to allow the Kallaix students and supporters to cheer, and cheer they did, "In second place we have Hogwarts with 106 points." All the Hogwarts students and supporters cheered, making a considerably larger commotion.

Tegan tuned out at that stage, happy they were in the lead but aware they could be overtaken, especially as the points for this even were inclusive. They would all have to work their butts off to maintain the lead. A soft nudge in her side from Ax brought her back to the present and Harry's speech.

"So you all have about 5 minutes before the first school enters Durmstrang, then there will be a half hour between schools. Good luck." Harry said before stepping off the podium and wading into the crowd where Tegan promptly lost sight of him.

Tegan blinked a few times still in the process of waking up when she heard someone call out. "Kris, Tegan, Ax"

She turned around and saw Harry approaching with someone in tow. Stopping in front of them he grinned, gesturing to the pretty girl with tanned skin and long sun streaked blonde hair, Tegan vaguely thought she looked a lot like one of the girls from the party the night before.

"I just wanted to introduce Tegan and Ax to Nymphadora Tonks."

"Harry, call me Nymphadora and I will kill you! You know the rules, it's just Tonks thanks," she said.

The boys nodded hello, "I'm Kris, we met last night, this is Ax, my 'tribute' buddy, and this is Tegan, who usually doesn't have this weird look on her face." his eyebrows rose at Tegan's intent expression.

"You smell familiar." Tegan murmured.

"Smell?" Tonks asked a little perplexed, a little amused.

"Yeah, she tends to recognise people by scent rather then sight." Kris explained.

"She's the werewolf." Harry whispered to Tonks.

"Oh, ok, that makes sense."

Tegan listened to this with half an ear, she was to busy trying to figure out where she had smelled Tonks before. Suddenly she remembered and a look of revelation swept over her face.

"It was _you_!"

"It was me what?" Tonks asked.

Tegan started to laugh, "Lets play Ax's favourite game, his version of Cluedo."

Ax suddenly realised what she was talking about and gave a cheeky grin, "Who got freaky last night?" he looked around, "Tegan?"

"It was Tonks, in the cruiser library, _with_..." Tegan started to say but was cut off by Tonks slapping a hand over her mouth and pointing her wand at her face menacingly.

"Say it and I will shove a hex so far up your nose your head will explode. Understand?" Tonks said in a low voice. Tegan nodded her head, a look of amusement in her eyes.

Harry and Kris stood there looking confused. Tonks stalked off, Harry gave another confused look in Tegan's direction before following. When they were out of sight Tegan and Ax cracked up laughing. Kris stood and waited for them to finish.

"Are you going to tell me now?" he asked after a few moments

"Well I woke up earlier this morning and I could smell that someone had gotten freaky last night. At first I assumed it was just Ax, after a few more sniffs I realised that it wasn't. It was..." Tegan started to laugh again unable to control herself.

"Well?" Kris asked, impatient that a potentially funny piece of gossip was being kept from him.

"Tegan!" someone yelled.

Tegan looked up and around. Then she squealed and dashed off with Kris and Ax close behind. She flung herself at a guy who was wearing dark sunnies and a baseball cap. The boys caught up with her and grinned.

"Jeez Mark what are you doing here? Not that I really don't appreciate it. Look at you wearing the incognito gear!" Tegan said.

"Well this event was open for the public and I decided to come along and support our school, I'm gonna be hanging out with all the others in the tent, but first I think I'm going to conjure some coffee… " Mark said.

"Good idea. We chucked a big party last night. The others are probably still wearing off the effects."

"Well I suppose they are forgiven, partying can be tiring. So why aren't you sleeping?" He asked, concerned that his little sister wasn't getting enough sleep so soon after the full moon.

"Will the Kallaix contestants please make their way to the starting point now, they will be the second school to enter." A loud voice called.

"I got to go now Mark, love you heaps." Tegan walked off following Ax and Kris.

"Wait, Tegan! Hang ON! You two better take care of her!" He yelled after them.

Kris and Ax just waved and kept going. They joined up with the other contestants of the hunt at the entrance of a huge maze. Looking around Tegan spotted the Hogwarts team, which were Harry, Ron and Draco. Tegan smiled to her self self-assuredly.

* * *

"Are you ready Kallaix Contestants?"

The boys said 'yes' and Tegan's voice could be heard mutinously saying 'no'.

After many assurances from Kris and Ax that he should just let them in because Tegan was fine, he said loudly "On your mark, get set, GO!"

A loud cheer accompanied Kallaix as they took their turn early on and entered the maze. Inside the entrance there was a small clearing with waist high columns arranged in a circle. On each collum there was a school crest. The Kallaix team headed over to their collum. On it was a piece of paper, Kris picked it up.

"What is it?" Ax asked peering over his shoulder.

"It's a list." Kris replied.

"Well. What's the first thing on it?" Tegan asked.

"Uh... we have to learn the dance printed on the back. It says here that we can only go through the dance steps three times, then it'll disappear."

"Great, no point me learning it, my memory is woeful for that kind of thing." Tegan said. "But why do we have to learn a dance? What do we need _dancing_ for?"

"_You remember that bird thing from the Quest info sheets we accidentally have? You have to learn a dance to get the feather so you can control it_," Jacque's voice came in on the microphones she had painstaking installed on them this morning. The sheets they had managed to get turned out not to be instructions, rather information sheets on each of the creatures in the event, without instructions on when or where they would come.

"Well I could learn it, it looks easy enough." Kris said.

"You? You're going to memorise a dance by only doing it three times?" Ax asked, sceptic.

"Have you ever been dancing with Justine?" Kris asked.

"Yeah."

"No, not at parties, professionally like at Dad's balls and such."

"Er, no."

"Lucky. Well I have and she is a harder task master then this paper, she expected me to have learned the Tango by the second time around and the waltz after the first time, so compared to her this is easy."

Ax and Tegan just looked at Kris with sceptical looks.

"Fine, you don't believe me, watch."

He put the paper down and looked at the steps. He went through them the first time slowly, the second time he sped up, then handing the paper to Ax, he went through the steps flawlessly the third time. The steps on the paper then disappeared.

"Well. Congrats. But we have a Quest to do, so what's next?" Tegan said.

Ax looked at the paper; "We have to find this bird and get the feather on top of its head," He showed them the little drawing of the bird.

Tegan gave feral grin, "Let's go hunting."

With that they rushed off into the maze. They walked around the twists and turn for a few minutes before stopping at an intersection. The walls were thick with small green laves, and an ivy like vine grew weaved through the branches. Tegan would bet that the walls of the maze were cursed so you couldn't blast your way through, but wondered if she should anyway. She stopped the group by holding out a hand.

"Well, can you smell it Tegan?" Kris asked.

"Smell what?" Tegan asked, distracted for a moment.

"The bird."

"You dick, what is she, our damn animal detector?" Ax drawled disdainfully.

"I was wondering when you were going to ask and the answer is no, for starters I don't know what the bird smells like in general and secondly there is more then one animal species roaming the maze with us."

"What? And you neglected to inform me because?" Kris asked.

"Because the creatures didn't smell like a threat. I would have told you if it did." Tegan said in a tone of voice that suggested it was an obvious answer.

"Well of course they won't smell like a threat to you 'cause you're a werewolf. Werewolf's can take on almost anything, what about us, huh? We might want a little fun?" Kris fired back.

"Focus." Ax said.

"What?" they both said at the same time.

"Kris you better bust the moves because according to the list the dance is the only way to get the feather from the bird. That bird." He pointed at something over Kris's shoulder.

Kris and Tegan both turned and looked at the bird, which had entered the intersection. It was at least three meters from the top of its feather-crested head to its clawed feet. It was all different shades of the sunset, and reminded the Australians strongly of an overly dressed Emu. The bird peered at them. Kris slowly took a few steps forward and did the dance carefully. When he finished they all waited. He wasn't _the_ most graceful boy, but many years of football, Quidditch and numerous other sports had given him a keen awareness of his body and how it worked and he pulled the dance of beautifully. Finally the bird walked a few steps forward and lowered its head towards Kris. Kris reached a trembling hand up and plucked the golden feather from the top of the crest.

As soon as he got it a bag appeared on the ground. Tegan picked up the bag and held it open. Kris dropped the feather in and gave a grin.

"What now?" He asked Ax.

"Now we find the way out of this godforsaken maze."

"Great. Lets go!" Kris said.

* * *

Harry, Ron and Draco looked at the piece of paper twenty minutes later as they entered the mazethat had their instructions. "We have to learn a dance," Ron repeated after Harry had told the other two what was going on. "How the hell are we supposed to do that?"

"I'm taking it that I'm the only one who took dancing lessons for twelve years?" Draco drawled, and smirked when the other two looked at him. "Give me the paper," he said, holding out his hand.

Harry and Ron looked at one another and burst into laughter simultaneously, leaning against each other and positively howling. It was as much that Draco had _done_ dance lessons as the pompous tone that he had used. Draco scowled at them, snatched the paper from Harry's trembling hand and read through the instructions, carefully reading through and practicing the dance while his two companions recovered from their laughing spree.

"You two really aren't the supportive, helpful people I'd appreciate doing this with," Draco remarked, "I could just walk off and leave you, and then where would you be? You wouldn't have anyone who could do the dance and you'd be screwed."

"If we were screwed, then Hogwarts would be too," Ron pointed out, "And you wouldn't do that. Not even you could be arrogant enough to think that you could get through the Quest on your own, Draco."

Harry noted that Ron had called the Slytherin boy _Draco_ rather than Malfoy, which was a good sign. He wasn't sure how Draco would take the implication that he was arrogant, he was, of course, but that didn't mean he admitted it … at least, he didn't in most company.

Despite the laughter, Draco didn't get self-conscious and practiced the dance rather than responding to Ron's quip, which relieved Harry. He noticed that his brother went through the dance with a smooth grace. He didn't know what the dance was supposed to look like, but Draco made it look good without looking like he was even trying.

When the paper disappeared after the third practice, Draco just nodded, indicating that he was ready to proceed into the maze. "Which way are we supposed to go?" Ron enquired, looking at the options that immediately presented themselves. The other two boys just shrugged, "Are we allowed to use Point Me?"

"Should be," Harry said, raising his hand, "_Point Me_," he said, fully expecting to see an arrow appear above his hand to show them which was they should go. Instead, a miniature of the maze appeared on his palm, a purple line connecting where they stood with the way out. "I didn't mean for it to do that," he said immediately, worried that it was cheating.

"The Point Me spell is allowed in the rules," Draco shrugged, "We may as well take advantage of anything that will help us, after all. Let's go – we know where we have to end up, but we still have to find the bird before we leave. So lets just follow the path, and hopefully we'll run into one … if not, we can go back and look through the maze until we do find one."

Ron and Harry just shrugged. Draco was right, they weren't _technically_ cheating, they supposed. "Let's go then," Harry nodded and started forward, heading along the path that coincided with the purple line on his hand. At the third intersection they came across, a huge bird that looked as if it's feathers were made of fire was pacing out of one of the other ways that they could go, stalk like legs allowing it to move gracefully, a huge feather rising up from it's forehead.

"I think that's the bird," Ron remarked.

"Yeah," Harry agreed, and pushed Draco forward, "Put those dancing lessons to good use," he told his brother, he and Ron stepping back to give Draco room. Draco nodded and stepped forward, starting the dance immediately, showing no sign of nerves as he performed to an excellent degree.

When he finished, the bird lowered it's head, offering the feather to Draco. Draco reached out and took the feather from the head of the bird. Once he had, it rubbed his hand against his shoulder, almost suggestively. "Looks like Draco found a girlfriend," Ron teased, stepping forward now that it was safe to continue.

"If you ignore the species gap, and the fact that I don't even know if it's a girl," Draco sneered in response. To the surprise of the three boys, to the bird looked almost put out by Draco's manner, and turned to stalk away as if hurt. "Which way now?"

"This way," Harry said, pointing down a path. When they headed down it, the bird turned back and followed them at a distance. "I think it's following us," Harry remarked. "Guess it's supposed to do that."

"Maybe she just thinks that Draco's handsome," Ron suggested, ducking away from Draco's half-hearted punch.

They were nearly at the edge of the maze before they encountered anything else, with the bird still following them at a distance. As they turned down another path, they found a small Gerbil-like like thing trundling up and down a small section of the path. It was almost sweet in appearance, with wide, innocent eyes.

"What's that?" Ron asked.

"I don't know, but I don't trust it," Draco replied, eyeing the creature with distrust.

"Let's just walk slowly passed it," Harry suggested, "Ron, keep your wand out, Draco, be ready," he raised his own hand, ready to cast a spell if necessary, and started forwards, watching the creature from the corner of his eye, but keeping an eye on what was ahead of them, in case this was only to divert their attention from something more dangerous.

He made it passed without any mishaps, and nothing new appeared from anywhere. He turned around to watch as Ron, the most vulnerable of their party and thus walking between the two more powerful, walked behind him, like Harry, only watching the creature with a cursory interest.

Finally, it was Draco's turn to walk through. The little creature turned its sweet eyes on the blonde boy, who stared back into them with a faint sneer and a dominating gleam in his eyes. Immediately, the creature gave a angry shriek and reared up, breathing out a poisonous looking red mist. Draco was rooted to the spot and couldn't move to escape as the mist surrounded him. When it had cleared, the creature had moved away, trundling down the path and Draco was lying, curled up and fast asleep on the ground where he must have fallen.

Harry leapt over immediately and cast a spell to try and wake Draco up. His brother jolted upright immediately, then sat back groggily. "Ow, my head," he groaned, reaching up a hand to massage his forehead as if it pained him. "What happened?"

"The thing attacked you. I guess you just didn't charm it like you did that bird … guess it must have been a guy," Ron replied with a wicked grin. Draco just muttered half-heartedly in response to the claim, and held out his hand for Harry to help him up. Harry hauled him to his feet, and threw one of Draco's arms over his shoulder, indicating that Ron should go to Draco's other side and support him from there.

By the time that they had reached the end of the maze, Draco had mostly woken up, and his team mates were teasing him about being floored by a cute little hamster-gerbil.

* * *

"Kris we are lost! Trust a male to have no bloody sense of direction" Tegan said after they had been wondering around the maze for fifteen minutes.

"No we're not, I know exactly where we are." Kris stated in a macho yet uncertain tone.

"Then why were we here just five minutes ago, hmm?"

"How do you know if we've been here already?"

"Because I can smell our trail, we've been going around in circles."

"Well, I know one way to solve this problem." Ax said as he took out his sword.

"I agree," Kris said, "On the count of three. One..."

"Guys, don't. I don't think were allowed to start blasting holes. Follow me, I think we might have a way out." Tegan said sniffing the air.

Tegan was catching a faint whiff of the Hogwarts team. She could smell the confidence they had so she figured they might have some way to get out of the maze, trust them to have pulled in front of Kallaix already, when they must have been the third school to enter a whole twenty minutes after Kallaix. After another 10 minutes they finally reached the entrance, Hogwarts had just passed through it. Tegan silently thanked them. The maze ended near the edge of the lake and an arrow sign confirmed the direction was straight into it's murky depths.

* * *

Leon, standing with Tanya, watched as Jacque sat at her computer, getting the scores for the first rounds of the Quest. They had retreated to the Kallaix Information Tent because the Hogwarts people were glaring at Leon and Oliver, who were both standing with the Australians. Oliver and Adam were talking about Quidditch more than concentrating on what was going on with the Quest.

Leon, of course, was happy to be surrounded by people from his own country, who could actually understand his way of speaking, even when he was at his most obscure. "So, how's Kallaix doing?" Tanya asked, standing beside Leon and spending a lot of her time talking to him, catching up on everything now that they both knew that the other was a part of the Magical World also.

Scattered all around the tent were the pages from the Quest info sheets. Leon had been informed of what was going on when he had accompanied them to the tent, as had Oliver. Oliver's words upon finding out had been, "I really should do something about that, but I can't be bothered. You had to work to get the sheets, so I guess your ingenuity in getting the sheets makes up for the cheating. Or something… whatever."

Leon had just shrugged, "You're Aussies, like me. I'm not telling anyone."

So Jacque had the group of Kallaix students with her sorting through the plans so that she knew _exactly_ what was coming up, and what to do about it. Jacque's screen flashed, and a large seven appeared on it. "OK, so we go a seven … we should have done better, but we took too much time getting out, and apparently no one had faith that Kris could learn the dance – of course they did, it was just general bickering," Jacque remarked, glaring at the screen.

"I'll go check on what Hogwarts got," Leon said, and hurried out. Tanya glanced after him, then went to help Jeffery sort through the information on the Lake, which was the next task in the Quest.

Leon arrived back panting, "Hogwarts got nine," he told them, a little breathlessly, "Lost a point getting out, ran into some sort of evil hamster."

"Why were you running?" Tanya enquired.

"The other Hogwarts students chased me away – apparently I'm a traitor to the school because I'm hanging out with you instead of them, I _think _Seamus was kidding, but I ain't taking no chances" Leon replied.

"I see," Tanya said, voice dangerous, reaching for her wand.

"What's she doing?" Leon asked.

"Stop her!" Saul yelled, leaping for Tanya and scattering papers _everywhere_, Jeffery leaping to help him, but managing to avoid knocking anything over. Tanya had already taken a running step for the door when Saul and Jeffery knocked into her.

Saul went straight for her wand, and Jeffery held her arms while she growled and snarled obscenities, seemingly directed at the Hogwarts students, revolving around the theme, "How dare they diss my friends! I'll kill them!"

Jacque, who was alternating between scowling at the papers now settling on floor and glancing at her computer screen. "If someone could pick up those papers, I do need to know what's going on in the Lake, and that will be rather hard with the papers all over the floor and in _no order at all_," she remarked disgustedly.

"Oops," Saul muttered.

"That comment was directed at you, Saul," Jacque told him.

"Dammit."

* * *

They jogged down to the shore of the lake and stood there looking at the list. Ax seemed to be driven on by the idea that somehow, Hogwarts had seemed to over take their half hour lead into the maze. It was then that they realised that the bird was still with them.

"What are you doing here?" Ax asked.

Since he was not expecting an answer he got the biggest shock of his life when the bird answered, "You will need me later on. In any case, you are in possession of my feather, and I want it back. But at the rate you are going, the future looks grim."

"Right…." Ax's eyebrows shot up "The bird talks … Does it always talk?"

"_Only when an intelligent question is directed at it. A good thing Saul _didn't_ end up on the Quest team_," Jacques voice came over the headsets. She sounded pissed off. "_The birds are, by the way, sadistic by nature. I wouldn't pay much attention to anything it says._"

"Oh yay, just what I always wanted, to be stuck in the company of a sadistic budgie," Ax muttered rebelliously. The bird, if it had had a human face, would have been scowling murderously, as it was, it managed to do a pretty good impression as it stalked away. "Well, let's go," Ax said, not in the least bit concerned that the bird was walking away from them.

"Should we, like … get it back?" Kris wondered.

"We have the feather, we have the power," Tegan replied.

"Exactly," Ax nodded. "So, what are we waiting for?"

"Ax, we can't go anywhere until you tell us what we have to do next." Tegan reminded him.

"Oh right, well, it says here that we have to go into the lake and get a pearl. That sounds easy enough."

"I bet'cha there's a catch." Kris said suspiciously.

"Yeah there is, how do we get the pearl? What charm or spell are we going to use?"

"_Guys, since Saul has managed to scatter all the Lake papers _everywhere_, I can't get you much info, but I have a sheet here saying there are some pretty nasty little beasties in the lake,_" Jacque told them. "_Something called a 'Naga' – it says there are pictures on the next page, but no one can find it. _Saul! Sort the bloody papers out!" she added to someone else.

"Well, getting to the pearl should be easy enough … and I'm sure that we won't have to deal with the Naga's too personally," Kris pointed across the lake to where the Kallaix yacht and the Durmstrang ship were sitting, "See unlike the other schools, we have a secret weapon."

Tegan gave a big grin as she realised what Kris was talking about, "Well let's call her over and get started."

Within moments the McEwan dragon was gliding silently over to where they stood on the shore.

"Honey, do you think you could help us with a little problem. We need to get to the bottom of the lake to get a pearl and we don't have anything really effective, so we were wondering if you wouldn't mind helping?" Tegan said.

_I do not like this, children. I do not want you to come into the lake. There is something bad here. Something I do not like. I was not told of its arrival, and had I been asked, I would not have allowed it. If I could kill it, I would, but it is protected by something. Go elsewhere,_ McEwen told them, glancing at the waters.

"She doesn't want us to go into the lake," Tegan told Ax, who couldn't understand, Kris could hear her, as the Head Boy of Kallaix he had the same powers of Justine. "They are called Naga, we don't know exactly what they are … but we _have_ to go into the lake, it's part of the reason we came here."

_You should not come here, forget what you came for and go elsewhere_, McEwen insisted.

"It's for the glory of the school. We lose this, we go home with _nothing_ and Hogwarts gets all the glory."

_Very well, step into the waters_, McEwen said instantly.

"It's a good thing that McEwey loves Kallaix more than us," Kris muttered.

Ax and Tegan chuckled as they walked into the water. "I feel so unloved," Ax remarked.

_The glory of the school is all encoumapssing_, McEwen told them calmly.

"She says that the glory of the school is all," Tegan translated.

As they walked into the lake the McEwan dragon started to sing. As they kept walking they noticed that a bubble was forming around them.

"Cool" Kris said.

"Thank you" Tegan said to the dragon.

_You are welcome. As long as you stay underwater the bubble will stay with you and if you need to separate you will each gain an individual bubble for yourselves. Good Luck. I go to search out these _Naga_; I will attempt to distract them for you._

With that the dragon swam off. They kept walking down into the lake, soon finding that they had to use their wands to cast light.

"So do you think we can swim or do we have to walk all the way" Kris asked.

Ax shrugged, "Lets give it a try." With that he jumped up only to come back down. Kris and Tegan stood to one side in the second bubble as they watched Ax.

"Ax I don't think we have enough time to be wasting it." Tegan pointed out.

"Hang on! I just want to try something." He said.

Ax slowly put his hand towards the bubbles sides. As his hand touch he kept pushing and the bubble formed around his hand. He kept going until there was an Ax sized bubble around him.

"Hey, I wanna try that" Kris said. Kris started to walk towards the bubble wall himself. The result was the same for him.

"Come on Tegan. As you said we don't have time to waste." Ax said.

Tegan rolled her eyes; "Fine I'm coming" She walked out of the big bubble towards the boys who had started to swim away. She came out with her own shaped bubble suit and started to swim after the boys. She was surprised by how easily she managed to move through the water and quickly caught up with Ax and Kris.

"So, how are we going to find the pearl?" Tegan asked, glad to realise that they could still hear each other through the separate bubbles, though the other's voices were a little distorted and was sure that her voice would sound the same for the other two.

"I dunno, follow road signs?" Kris replied.

"Oh yes Kris, just follow the road signs. Think. There are no road signs under water." Tegan said.

"Actually I think he's right" Ax said.

"What!" Tegan exclaimed.

"Really?" Kris asked happily.

"Yeah. See just up ahead." Ax pointed, and sure enough there was an arrow floating in the water pointing in the direction they were to go in.

"I don't believe this. " Tegan said as she swam past it.

The water began to darken to a swirling green-grey and become colder, sending chills down Tegan's back and as they swam they passed another arrow and kept going. It seemed that at one stage a dome of protective magic was directly below them, and through it's static surface the three could see a sort of village, but decided not to try their luck on the dome and swam on. After about half an hour they had passed another two more arrows and had approached another one. They had just changed direction as the arrow dictated when a big black shape came rushing out of the darkness and straight for them.

Ax and Tegan managed to avoid the creature due to fast reflexes, Tegan only just but poor Kris didn't see it coming and thus wasn't as lucky. He was rammed and was thrown backwards. Ax jumped on the creature and wrestled with it while Tegan swam over to see if Kris was all right.

"Are you alright?" Tegan asked Kris.

"Yeah I'm fine, I've been tackled by worst in footy." Kris replied cockily.

The creature looked very similar to a crocodile but its legs were longer and on the top of the tail there was a long dark green fin. The creature had an over all mottled dark green and brown colouration, bumpy and rough.

Ax, meanwhile, was still on the back of the croc creature trying to get his sword out while still hanging on. The creature was swinging around trying to snap at Ax. One snap came perilously close to disfiguring Ax's crutch when he had almost slipped off. Kris and Tegan hung back not sure whether to interfere, yet ready to jump in if they were needed.

Ax, fearing for the future of his crutch, managed to get his sword out and, with and sharp rap, hit the creature on the head. The thing just kept thrashing so Ax just kept hitting it with the hilt until it went limp. As soon as it stopped moving Ax let go and allowed it to drift away. "I figured killing it may get me in trouble."

Suddenly the water churned and a second of the creatures swam fast out of the gloom, heading, again, straight for Kris. This time, he was ready for it. Tegan hung back – she had seen Kris in footy, when he wasn't surprised; he would be able to take the creature out with ease.

Kris, however, was remaining perfectly still in the water, and Tegan was beginning to worry if he was scared of crocodiles or something, as he was behaving much like petrified prey. At the last second, however, her fears were allied when Kris turned sideways in the water, floating alongside the jaw for a second, and then slipping one arm beneath the creatures jaw, and rolling himself over it's back to push the upper jaw closed.

Tegan looked at the thrashing couple, and then reached for the bandana she was wearing to keep her hair out of her face, quickly shoving it out of her bubble and swimming over to secure it around the creature's jaws to hold them closed. She whispered a holding charm on the wet fabric, just to make sure. Being a werewolf, she had little fear of fierce creatures – she knew that very few of them could harm her. But being in the water, she was out of her element.

"Thanks," Kris said, still clinging to the creature, which was thrashing around trying to unseat him, or get its mouth free. He wrestled his wand out, and tapped it hard between the eyes and muttered, "_Stupefy_."

There was a sudden high-pitched screech that forced them to slap hands over their ears. As it faded a very large shape came torpedoing towards them. A very, _very_ large shape. The crocodile look-a-like creature that had regained consciousness after Ax had fought with it swam off very quickly as the McEwen dragon stopped next to them.

_How dare those creatures harm one of my children!_

"Thank you," Tegan said, grateful.

_You are welcome but perhaps, for your own safety, I shall accompany you to wherever you are bound next in these waters. I just met with the beast and the female he accompanies. They were told to set the Naga-dogs on you, vile creature, I would kill him but he is protected by this Dumbledore-man's magic._

"But won't that be cheating?" Tegan asked.

Ax and Kris looked at each other for a moment then both said, "No… if she keeps her head down they wont know she's there will they? "

"But..."

"Well you see technically we didn't ask her to come, she wanted to come of her own free will and since it is wrong to force someone to do something against their will, she will come with us." Kris said reasonably.

"See there is always a loop-hole in the rules" Ax said, "Now lets get the pearl and get out of here. Some huge shadowy thing brought my creature back to its senses, and even with a dragon, I don't think I want to get too close to it."

They managed to swim down and get the pearl without further incident. It was as they were getting close to the shore that Ax and Tegan heard muffled laughter from Kris.

They were climbing out of the water when Tegan turned to Kris and said, "What are you laughing at?"

Kris couldn't control himself anymore and said to Ax, "Crikey mate! That was one big croc!"

Ax just raised an eyebrow before turning back to the list.

Kris kept going, "You beauty! You can't get a croc much bigger then that!"

Ax had enough and whipped out his sword, "Shut up."

"Crikey, I'm sorry mate," Kris turned to Tegan and in a loud stage whisper said, "It's not good to get Steve Irwin mad."

"It's not like you didn't wrestle one as well," Ax muttered, "Now shut up."

"Think I'm going to name my croc Bob, after me mate Saul's favourite deck chair," Kris muttered in a rather good Steve Irwin impression.

Another school team, who had gotten out of the water about the same time as them, started to laugh madly. Tegan was sure she could see Ax seriously considering doing a little slicing and dicing.

Lucky they were interrupted by Jacque. "_How are you guy's doing? I had a bit of trouble reaching you before. What you battled were called Naga dogs, and the best way to defeat them is to stroke them under the chin – they go limp."_

"See, it wasn't just you being 'powerful', Kris, you had it under the chin," Ax remarked. "By the way, Jacque, couldn't you have mentioned that earlier?"

"_Saul only just found the bloody sheets. If he does this again with the next area, I'm going to evict him from the tent_," Jacque replied.

"_You are the Weakest Link – goodbye,"_ Adam's voice came over the headsets, he was evidently talking loudly.

"_It's time to go … Saul_," the rest of the group laughed in Big Brother impression.

"_Do we have nothing better to do than watch stupid reality TV shows in the holidays?"_ Tanya wondered.

"Yeah, something like that," Ax replied, "But what are we doing next? Something to do with fire, isn't it?"

"This is where you'll need _my_ help – without a dragon to help you, I'm sure you wouldn't get out of the next bit alive," a voice muttered.

"Oh great, the sadistic budgie is back," Ax remarked as the bird stalked up to them. The group descended into giggles and the bird gave them a look of injured pride and stalked off ahead of them.

They kept walking following both the bird and the arrows, which were still floating, much as they had been in the lake. Rounding an outcrop of trees they were hit by an incredible heat.

"Oh god!" Tegan exclaimed, raising a hand to protect her eyes.

"_I'm afraid that you're going to have to deal with this one on your own as well," _Jacque's voice came to them, and she sounded _really_ pissed off. This was not 'Saul is being an idiot again' pissed off … this was the real thing.

"What's happening?"

"_They are trying to give us a six for the lake because you had the dragon helping. I'm going to argue it out with those skanky little bastards … we deserve full marks for that!"_

"Hurry back then," Kris said, "I think we might need help – I don't like the lava."

"_Don't worry, I've got Saul manning the desk now,"_ Jacque said cheerfully.

"To use my dad's favourite expression, _oh god, we're screwed_," Kris remarked, and together they rounded a corner. Before them was a huge pit of lava. On the other side they could see another team walking off.

"How the hell are we suppose to get over this?" Kris mused.

"_Hello lady and gentlemen, welcome to Saul Airlines_," Saul began in a smooth imitation host voice.

"Saul, shut up and tell us what to do," Tegan said, pushing her hair out of her eyes. "I wish I had my bandana," she remarked.

"Hey, sorry!" Kris said, "It's not _my_ fault I didn't know how to deal with the damn Naga dogs!"

"The list says that if we still have the bird, that's what we use to cross the lava." Ax said he turned to the bird that was still behind them, "Is that true?"

"It's not like you'll get across the lava _without_ my help, now is it?" the bird demanded.

"Stupid sadistic budgie," Ax muttered.

"Ax, now is _not_ the time to be insulting it," Tegan remarked, "It's about to be carrying us across a pit of _lava_."

"The sadistic budgie has to do what we tell it to, we have it's feather," Ax replied proudly, "So I can insult it all I like. By the way, what's a lava dog?" Ax asked looking up from the list, "'Cause it says we have to get the diamond off a lava dogs head."

The bird sighed, "Don't they teach you anything useful. A lava dog is a creature that lives in and around volcanos and such. They originated in Hawaii but have since populated every other active volcanic area in the world. Is there anything else you need to know?"

"Yeah, is it going to be hard to get the diamond?" Kris asked.

"Fortunately for you, no, lava dogs regularly shed their diamonds so all you have to do is grab – I doubt you could manage much more than that."

"Well let's go find us a lava dog." Tegan said cheerily before Ax could get into another argument with 'the sadistic budgie'.

The bird sat down making it easier for them to clamber on. "Hey, this thing didn't look so big when we were on the ground," Kris remarked.

"Obviously," the bird remarked. When they had all settled, the bird got up and walked to the pit. When it took the first step on the lava Tegan cringed but the bird kept walking.

"_Well, I'm back,"_ Jacque's voice came over. Saul had been chatting away through just about everything they had been doing, and they had been ignoring him. "_I managed to get us a nine, by the way. They wouldn't give me a ten, because you didn't know exactly how you were supposed to deal with the Naga dogs._"

"Go you!" Kris replied.

"Can you take us to a lava dog if you see one?" Tegan asked the bird, her hand touching the bag with the feather.

"How else would you find one?" the bird demanded, "By the way, there is one over there."

The bird walked over alongside a large dark grey creature with wide jaws and two too many legs. On top of its head a diamond sparkled in the sunlight. Tegan reached down to grab it. With a growl the lava dog snapped at her.

Tegan pulled her hand back and gave the dog a dirty look before growling herself. The lava dog growled back and pretty soon they were locked in a growling match.

"Tegan, stop it and just get the diamond!" Ax said.

"Bad Tegan! Bad!" Kris said, "Bad girl."

But Tegan didn't hear, she was intent on winning this little dominance fight.

"Tegan stop it!" Ax yelled, impatient now.

Much to Kris and Ax's surprise the bird whipped it's head around and gave a short sharp peck to the top of Tegan's head.

"Ow, what was that for?" Tegan complained.

"You stupid creature. Just get what you came for and stop the nonsense. That way I can rid myself of your presence, which is, I assure you, not in the least wanted," The bird said angrily.

With a quick swoop Ax reached down and grabbed the diamond off the lava dogs head.

"Let's get out of here," he said to the bird.

Without any further encouragement the bird walked off towards the other side of the pit. When they reached the far side they clambered off and the bird turned to them and demanded, "My feather," it asked.

"Can't do that, sorry," Ax grinned waving the bag in front of the birds face, "We need it for the end of the Quest," the bird snapped at them, obviously having hoped to trick them out of it's feather, then flew off to who knew where. Tegan rubbed her head.

"I'm going to have a serious lump from that stupid sadistic budgie," she complained.

"Get over it, you did kind of deserve it." Ax said. "Much as I hate to stick up for the sadistic budgie."

"You were a very bad dog." Kris commented.

"What, you want me to put my head down and tail between my legs?" Tegan asked.

"Yes, I believe that would be the appropriate response in your situation." Kris replied.

Tegan just stuck her tongue out at Kris. "What now?" she asked.

"Alright now we have to go through that." Ax said pointing straight ahead to a collection of massive poles like stripped tree trunks of various heights sticking out of the ground about 100m ahead of them, "According to the list there should be 8 stars we have to collect and a scale from a quetza… Quetzalcoatl."

"Oh no, not a Quetzalcoatl," Tegan groaned.

"What's wrong with them?" Kris asked.

"They are the most short-tempered, nastiest creatures you can get, even worse than a harpy."

"So what's this got to do with us and now?" Kris asked.

"Think swooping magpies. Permanently. That's a Quetzalcoatl, and one of us has to get a scale off it – that means that one of us will have to fly – not me, I don't like flying," Tegan said.

"_But don't worry, they shed scales like feathers, you just have to find a loose one,_"

"Really reassuring." Kris said sarcastically, "I'm going to have to do the flying aren't I?"

"Yep," Tegan and Ax said together.

Kris just stalked off towards the poles, Ax and Tegan hurried to catch up.

"_The stars you have to collect should be a cream colour, all the different schools have different colours, they seemed to be based loosely around the colours of the hunt Jackets or Uniforms. Hence, Hogwarts has gold from their crest, Beauxbatons has blue etc…." _Jacques piped up.

"Thanks Jacque." Tegan said, "Kris did you hear that?"

"Yeah, yeah I heard." Kris muttered.

Approaching the poles they noticed a line of brooms. Kris choose one and climbed on.

"Me and Ax will just walk around on the ground and look for a scale that might have been shed earlier, should make your job easier."

"Good," Kris muttered as he started to lift up.

"Oh don't forget, quetzalcoatals are related to dragons, so they can breathe fire." Tegan yelled after Kris.

"What!"

"_She's right, so watch out for the flames."_ Jacque confirmed.

"Wonderful, giant pissed off magpies that can breathe fire, coming at me from god knows where."

"_Don't forget the harpies,"_ Jacque added.

"Harpies? Hey nobody said anything about there actually being harpies." Kris yelled out. Tegan and Ax had started to walk between the close together poles cautiously by then.

* * *

Kris cruised around the poles looking for the first of the stars. Spotting one he flew towards it. A horrible screech was all the warning Kris got of the dark shape plummeting from the sky. With flying reflexes born of numerus Quidditch practices with Justine and Jeffery, he swerved and looked at the creature that was back-winging.

The Quetzalcoatl snapped it's enormous head around and glared. With a fluffing of the feathers around its neck it opened it's mouth and a jet of orange flame shot out. Kris had to do some more fancy flying to avoid being barbequed. And panting from the effort, he shot off swerving around the poles with the Quetzalcoatl hot on his heels.

Meanwhile Tegan and Ax were on the ground still searching for a scale, unable to see Kris's dilemma through the poles.

"Out the way!" Kris screamed as he flew towards them.

Ax and Tegan threw themselves on the ground as Kris zoomed overhead closely followed by the Quetzalcoatl. Getting up they watched as Kris still swerved around the poles, getting whatever stars he could while dodging the flame and snapping teeth.

"Vile humans!" a rasping and accented voice screamed.

Ax and Tegan swang around and looked up. They saw a flock of harpies sitting on the perches that jutted from all the poles.

"Er, Hi?" Tegan said tentively.

With a screech of the harpies own particular brand of vocals, they all lifted off and started to dive at them. Tegan and Ax were forced to duck and cover their heads in defence as the harpies tried to claw and peck their eyes out.

"I'm am so over this shit." Ax growled, and with a fluid movement slid his sword out and started to slash at the harpies.

With screeches and curses the harpies started to back off Ax, but kept up the attack on Tegan. With a growl of anger from Tegan she swang her arm around and hit the closest harpy, her werewolf strength sending it to the ground a good ten metres away. She then whipped out her wand and set about stunning any harpy within reach. Tegan was pissed, it had been a long day so far and she was getting sick of it very quickly.

"Tegan! You can stop now, I think that harpy is stunned enough." Ax voice cut through her anger.

Tegan realised that the remaining harpies had stopped attacking and had left; the ones that had been stunned were lying on the ground around her. The victim of her multiple stunnings was in front of her.

"Remind me not to get you royally pissed off." Ax said, putting his sword away, "And besides, Jacque just told me over the loud speakers that the Harpies are from a flock in the south of America, and are actually friends of Dumbledore's, who are just playing the part… maybe leave that one alone now." He looked somewhat amused as he watched the poor Harpy.

Kris, meanwhile, was still flying for all he was worth trying to shake off the Quetzalcoatl. So had far he had managed to gather five stars in his mad dash around the poles, but he still had three more to get and was having a hard time trying to find them with the Quetzalcoatl riding his up his ass end.

Suddenly another one flew straight up in front of Kris. With a loud curse Kris did a complete stop and shot straight up and over the new one. He risked a quick glance behind him, hoping that they might have a collided. Much to his disappointment he now had two of them chasing him.

"Think Kris think." He muttered to himself, then out loud "Tegan, quick, tell me what you know of Quetzalcoatals."

"_Er, give me a moment to think." _

"Well I don't have a moment! What I have is two quetzalcoatals thinking about wether they want me rare, medium or well done!"

"_Look all I can think at the moment is that their mean, nasty creatures from the South American jungles."_

Kris thought for a moment, "Jungles! No bloody wonder they are keeping up, they live in amongst bloody trees. Thanks Tegan." Kris started to glance behind himself more often, as he watched the way the quetzalcoatals moved he realised that the creatures didn't outright fly but moved from pole to pole with astonishing speed.

"Well lets se how long you can last when you _are_ flying." Kris muttered as he suddenly pulled up. Dodging the perches that stuck out he burst up above all the poles.

Predictably the quetzalcoatals followed, green-blue iridescent scales and feathers glinting in the sunlight. Kris started to fly around the top leading the creatures on a merry chase. They kept following, matching every twist and turn that Kris made. Kris actually had a rare opportunity to look for the remaining stars.

Finally he saw what he thought was a star, squinting and flying back over to make sure he had another look, sure enough it was another star. Going back he dove straight down and grabbed it. As soon as he touched it, it disappeared with a pop, gone to the bag that Tegan had. He pulled up and headed back for the open space above the poles.

Unfortunately and with no fault of his own other than not realising it had moved position, Kris ran straight into one of the quetzalcoatals. It let out a kind of squawk and snapped at him maliciously.

"Shit!" He said as he pulled into a barrel role, flipping out the tail of the broom and flying faux straight down, when he managed in fact to slip up and over its head and back into the safe zone out of their reach. Kris resumed his search for the last two stars. Looking back he saw the Quetzalcoatl that he had ran into drift down into the trees, a few of its feathers and scales drifting down.

"Great, one down one to go. Just grab that scale and the last star…" Kris muttered to himself.

But when he looked back over to spot where the scale fell so he could report it to the two on the ground, almost fell off his broom. Harry Potter was coming up out of the poles and grabbed one of the scales that Kris had knocked off.

"Oi, that's mine." Kris yelled.

Harry didn't appear to hear, his face a mask of concentration as he turned back down to plummet back into the forest of poles, seemingly pulling figure eights that were marginally successful in protecting him from attacks. Kris swerved and turned to follow Harry. He spotted Harry dodging through the trees and followed him from above.

Neither of the boys saw the flock of harpies they flew straight past, but the harpies saw Harry and all launched after him with screams of delight. Kris watched as Harry was caught unawares and mobbed by the flock, Kris was about to help him, cause, well that was what Kris did, when a bright pulse of rainbow like energy flew out from Harry and all ten or so Harpy's fell to the ground stunned. Kris's eyes flew wide, that had been one kickass stunning spell, Harry was not one to be messed with, and he took a mental note not to do so…

The Quetzalcoatl, though, didn't recognise this and just registered in their primal minds that the Harpies that they couldn't seem to attack due to that white haired old man, had fallen back, and the human flying the air like a bird was open to attack. It saw an easier prey and dove. Kris watched as Harry barely missed the mighty claw that slashed out viciously at Harry's neck and shoulders. It instead hit the tail of his broom, shattering the tail section and plummeting him for the ground.

With a curse Kris started to dive for him, but was too late as Harry was forced to land hard, being cornered in an area where the poles were too close together to even fly.

"Kris! It's ok we have him! Don't be stupid and get out of here!" Ax called up as he appeared, and together with Harry threw a massive stun from sword and hand at the beast.

"We've got it covered; you find the rest of the stars!" Tegan called back up, suddenly Tegan heard a scwark and the harpies on the ground around her began to wake up.

Kris gave a salute and flew off. Tegan had her wand out and had started a shield spell against the Harpies; Ax had his sword out and was standing menacingly. Suddenly the harpies let out squawks and screeches and started to fly away.

"I didn't think we were that scary." Tegan said as she watched the harpies fly away.

A big thump reverberating off the ground behind them told them that it wasn't them that the harpies were running from. Slowly Ax and Tegan turned around and stared with open mouths. Looking back at them were a pair of large green eyes in a draconic head framed by the beautifully coloured feathers that were puffed out in all directions. One mass of sinewy muscle, scales, and feathers. The creatures long serpentine body curled up under it as it raised its head, feathered wings flared.

"Don't make any sudden movements." Tegan whispered, but to late.

Ax had put his sword up and yelled, "Stupefy!"

The spell glanced of the creatures hide. Irritating the skin, Ax grabbed Tegan, "You know about these creatures, keep it busy. I need to see if I can help Harry get the broom happening."

"But… but."

"Do it." Ax said sternly.

Tegan turned to face the Quetzalcoatl, which stared back down at her with a look closely akin to contempt; it seemed to know it couldn't kill her, that it was merely here to be a distraction, unlike its animalistic partner. In fact, this one scared Tegan for its intelligence.

"Er, good beastie, you don't want to eat us." Tegan said nervously.

The Quetzalcoatl opened its mouth and took a deep breath, a sadistic look I it's eyes. Tegan's eyes thinned to angry slits as she realised it was going to play with her.

"Oh shit." Tegan muttered before running away from Ax and Harry so that they wouldn't be caught in the fire. The Quetzalcoatl swivelled its head to follow her. Tegan stopped and quickly muttered the spell that her father taught her to ward off flames.

As the jet of fire streamed towards her, the spell protected her by directing the flow of the fire to go around her. It was a simple spell that all witches and wizards that worked with dragons knew. Her father had taught both her and her brother in case they ever encountered a less then friendly dragon.

Ax standing with Harry, watching his back as he went to work repairing the various sections of his broom, Ax had to be grateful that he could do the task fast with Magai ability.

A groan escaped Harry just as Ron and Draco came running up. "STUPID BROOM! I would kill for mine, but i'd never get it out of the rest of the quest safely."

"Harry!"

"He's alright." Ax said as the boys stopped.

"Ax, a little help!" Tegan yelled.

Ax immediately leapt up and ran over to where Tegan was battling. Ron took a look at Harry, who had stood and was brushing off his clothing, and followed to see if he could help out Tegan, whom he very much liked after last night, and though of as a friend.

Tegan saw Ax and Ron coming and ran over to them. The Quetzalcoatl swang it's head around to face the new comers. Letting out a roar it lunged at them snapping.

Tegan reached them, "On the count of three, stupefy. Ready one, two…"

But the Quetzalcoatl had opened it's mouth again and another jet of flame was heading for them just as the stupefy spell was heading for it. Tegan tried to get the fireproof spell out but ran out of time. Just as the flame hit a force suddenly pushed it aside so it went around them.

The force of the stupefying spell from all three parties knocked the Quetzalcoatl hard, and it took off after other teams. Tegan gave a cough.

"What happened, I thought we were gonners." Ron said.

"We were gonners Ron." Tegan said as she coughed again, "I couldn't finish the fireproofing spell"

"Then why did fire go around us?" Ax asked.

"'Cause of mum and dad, mainly mum." Tegan replied screwing her face up in pain.

"Are you alright? And how does your parents account for us not being burnt to crisp." Ax asked, confused and worried.

Tegan gave a weak laugh, "Dad used to always take me and Mark with him on his research trips. Mum always worried that something would happen so one day she convinced dad to put a permanent fireproof spell on us in case something did happen. However once I learnt the more simple, yet temporary, spell I forgot I had it, until just now. Oh, headache, one of the side effects of the permanent spell is that it rips the magic from you to make the shield and if you're not expecting it then it hurts. Bad."

They had walked over to where Harry and Draco were standing; Harry was directing Draco on how they were going to get out, Ron joined them and they left.

Kris swooped in, "Hey guys I have the last stars, we can go now."

"_Will _someone_ please tell me what's going on?_" Jacque sounded irritable. "_All I've heard is a lot of 'oh shit' and 'I thought we were gonners' … I can hardly be expected to help you if I don't know what's going on!_"

"Sorry – we were dealing with two Quetzalcoatals, and you couldn't help Kris before, so we just … tried to deal," Tegan replied. "We've dealt with it all now though, so yeah."

Tegan could almost see Jacque rolling her eyes in disgust. "_Have you got the scale_?" she asked, "_And the stars?_"

Kris stood and picked up a scale that had fallen during their brief battle with the creature. "We do now," he replied.

"Good, let's get out of here," Ax said.

"_Well, just to let you know, you pulled off an eight and a half for the air, and you got a seven for the fire – apparently you lacked finesse," _At Jacque's words, both Kris and Ax turned to glare at Tegan, who simply shrugged.

"Animal instincts," she said, and the boys rolled their eyes.

"_You're currently on thirty one point five. Hogwarts is on thirty-three, so get bloody moving! Your next task is the forest_," Jacque told them.

"Ok, we're going, we're going!" Tegan muttered tiredly, and the three of them set off after the Hogwarts group, who were already moving. "What do you have on the forest?"

"_It'll be easy enough for you, Tegan – you have to locate a flower. On the list, you have a scratch and sniff, and then you have to find the flower that smells like it. There are several flowers, which all look alike, and the only difference is the smell,_" Jacque explained.

"List," Tegan said, holding her hand out. Ax handed it over immediately, knowing that Tegan would be able to completely ace this part of the Quest for them. She scratched the little area on the list, sniffed once and smiled sweetly. "Well, that's one scent I'll never forget – this way," she said happily.

"Tegan, we haven't even reached the forest yet," Kris pointed out.

"I can smell it from here," Tegan replied, and set off at an easy dogtrot, Kris and Ax hurrying behind her. They entered the forest at the same pace. Tegan paused and sniffed experimentally. "This way," she said, and set off again. Every couple of seconds she'd pause, look around, sniff, and set off with a minute change in direction.

Finally she came to a bemused halt. "It should be right here," she said, pointing to the ground at her feet. She looked around her, and the boys looked too.

"_Dammit, is no one thinking of looking up?_" Adam demanded angrily over the headsets.

Tegan, Kris and Ax looked up as one. There, hanging on a vine about half a metre above their heads was a pretty white flower. Tegan reached up and plucked it. "Well, that was silly of us – and I _told_ you it was right here!"

"Why couldn't you smell it was up?" Kris asked.

"Have you got any idea how heavy that scent is?" Tegan demanded, "This entire part of the forest positively _reeks_ of it!"

"Oh," Kris muttered, and they headed for the forest edge, finding it in good time and walking into a clearing.

"_You guys scored a perfect ten!_" Jacque's voice came over the headsets, and she sounded excited. "_There's no way that Hogwarts will be able to do that, you were the first out, in the shortest time! Therefore you are now on forty one point five."_

"What's next?" Kris asked.

"_Dragons,_" Jacque replied.

"Wicked," Kris grinned cockily, "Another perfect ten!"

* * *

They walked on for five minutes, aware that they must be close to the edge of the 'safe' zone of the forest, Acromantula territory, and bordering on Centaur land. The forest thinned into a clearing. In the centre of the clearing was Justine - she was lying up against the Steelwell dragon, with the Wentworth dragon resting the very end of its snout on her lap, and she was scratching the area just above its eyes.

Kris could hear Steelwell muttering in the background, "_Why is that I get _lain _on, but don't get _scratched_?"_

"Because I'm scratching Wentworth at the moment! Soon enough we can swap over and I'll … Oh! Hi guys!" Justine scrambled to her feet and looked about ready to fly at the Kallaix students, then restrained herself. "Before we get started, what's the score?"

"We're on forty one and a half," Ax replied, "And at the end of the area before last Hogwarts was beating up by two and a half points."

Justine nodded. "Ok then, by the way, you're the first one's here – guys, do your thing," this last was directed at the dragons. Rather over-enthusiastic, the Norwegian Ridgeback lunged straight for Kris, who was standing in the lead. Justine walked over to the side of the arena, determined that she would not do anything to affect the outcome of this event.

Before the dragon could even really think about doing actual harm to any of the Kallaix students, the Steelwell dragon was coming up behind it. "STOP!" Kris roared, and the Hyberdian Black nearly fell tail over snout. As the Head Boy of Kallaix Academy, Kris could command any dragon he chose, and they could not easily disobey him.

_Kristopher, I apologise for the little black one. It is overenthusiastic,_ Steelwell said, and placed one fore claw on the black dragons head, forcing it into the ground. The other dragon struggled, but was no match for Steelwell.

_You may proceed. We will pretend to do our job, but we cannot harm you_, Steelwell said, and the pair of dragons, one either side Alyson, arched their necks and blew fire gently over the Kallaix students, creating an archway of fire, under which the three students walked, Kris at the front, Tegan one side, a step behind, and Ax over to the other side, level with Tegan.

Tegan had her wand out, and she was casting fire protection charms, and Ax had put a neat shield up over them, just to make it _look_ like they were making an effort in the event.

Kris knelt down and lifted Alyson, princess style, and walked out of the arena, with Ax and Tegan keeping pace behind him. "_Perfect!_" Jacque said, and they could hear the smile in her voice, "_You'll have to get a ten for that one! And if they try anything else I'll … well, that doesn't matter, you've got a ten!"_ evidently their score had just appeared. "_Next is something called 'the Underground', and I don't like the sound of it. The only objective is to stay alive and make your way through to the end of the event."_

"This sounds nasty," Kris remarked. "What else do you know?"

"_The sheets we um, found, say only that there _ar_e creatures_, SAUL!_ Find the underground animal rundown!_" Jacque replied, "_What the creatures are was decided by the judges of this event, which is the Minister's of Magic for all of the respective countries."_

"So dad'll give us a good mark?" Kris asked.

"_No, unfortunately the judges don't know what school they are marking, the only thing they are told is exactly what it is each person has achieved."_

"Dammit," Kris muttered. "Well, let's see what this underground is like…"

* * *

Justine was feeling lonely now she had seen her friends. Wentworth and Steelwell were having an argument over who got scratches, and the clever little Norwegian had snuck over for a pat in the interim.

"You know, they're going to be annoyed when they see you." Justine said to it.

_But I have only just discovered feminine fingernails, Charlie; the human I lived with in Romania had such stubby ones… OH! Right there…"_

_Little one, get AWAY from our human! _Came Wentworth's voice from across the clearing.

"He was just getting a scratch guys. You've been hogging me all morning." Justine said with a raised eyebrow. "We're just going to have to figure out some sort of system ok?"

_Yes, little one, the system is this, you stay AWAY from our human and we in turn will let you live. _Steelwell imperiously added.

Suddenly three figures entered the clearing, talking amongst themselves. They stopped dead when they saw Justine surrounded by three dragons. Justine recognised Harry, Ron and _him._

"Guys. Get them good." Justine said, angry at Draco from his comments of last night.

_Gladly. _Steelwell said as the three advanced on the Hogwarts team.

* * *

_Well, There's another Chapter! YAYNESS! - Coming up soon - Luna Lovegood and More Greggy Goodness_!

Thanks -

**GoDDark** - Well this chapter should have answered your question, you little cluey one... (stcky tapes her mouth closed) Write to me soon, so we can figure out the whipped cream cameo!

**Queenie** - DamnIadore you - Thanks so much for reviewing love!

**BladeKnight** - I take it as my personal perogative to knock you into line when you need it, but now you have reviewed i may go easy on you, you'd better keep updating though :)

**Dark672** - (Princess and Wolfmoonhide behind a sofa) well... another cliffie... whoops... Thanks for reading and reviewing!

**Moonshadow10 -** GO YOUR INPUT WOOOOOO

**Ayheria** - Well, well well, so you like Justine's Snape huh? (chuckles) Poor Draco is about to find out some home truths... and yes, he will come crashing back down to earth. I really do give to poor dude a hard time... Hmmmm. You dont like Roin with Black hair:)


	11. Old Grudges Die Hard

Chapter dedicated to BladeKnight for creating Leon and remembering to review - although if he doesn't this time as well, he'll be TROUBLE.

* * *

Chapter Eleven:** _Old Grudges Die Hard_**

Kris, Ax and Tegan approached a large hole in the ground with a flight of wide earthen stairs leading down. Kris was still carrying Alyson.

"I don't like the look of this." Tegan said nervously.

"I agree, but this is the last leg of the quest. We get through this and we' re home free." Kris said.

"_Be careful guys, I don't have any more useful information on this part, and we don't know what's down there," _Jacques said sounding a little worried.

"Well we might as well get it over and done with." Ax said.

They all walk into the gloom using their wands for light. Ahead of them was a long dark tunnel. Ax pulled his sword out; ready for anything that might burst out of the darkness.

Ax went first along the tunnel, his sword glowing, lighting the way, next came Kris with Alyson and Tegan brought up the rear. So far they had encountered nothing but they were all on alert. Soon they had lost sight of the pale patch of daylight that was the entrance as they went around turns and corners. Tegan was highly strung; she had the constant feeling that she was being watched, hunted.

"_Are…alright?" _Jacques voice came suddenly. Tegan gave a yelp and jumped about a foot in the air.

"Don't ever do that again!" Tegan said fiercely.

"… _Can't… properly…static" _Jacque replied.

"We must be too far underground for her to hear us properly." Kris said

"Jacque, we're fine, I repeat, we're fine." Ax said.

"_Under… repeat…understood."_ Came Jacques reply.

"Come let's keep going." Ax said as he turned and kept walking.

Tegan suddenly stopped, "Wait a sec guys." She said.

"What is it?" Kris asked.

"Shh." Tegan walked over to the wall and placed a hand on it.

They all felt the slight rumble.

"There! Did you feel that?" she whispered, the boys nodded.

Tegan strained to hear something, she had a feeling that there was a cavalcade of sounds but they were just out of her range of hearing. Another rumble, this time more audible.

"Run." Tegan suddenly whispered, a feeling of sick premonition, "Run! Now" she yelled.

They all took off down the tunnel running at top speed. Behind them they all heard the rumbling as something huge followed right behind them. Tegan sneaked a peek behind her and caught a glimpse of massive jaws and flashing teeth. This was all she needed to see as she increased her speed catching up with Kris. Together they came level with Ax.

"Ax, catch Alyson!" Kris yelled as he passed her off. Ax caught her; as soon as he did Kris stopped and turned around, his wand out.

"LUMOS MAXIMUS" he yelled.

A bright flash of light burst from his wand. The creature gave a scream and dove into the ground. Under the bright light they all managed to get a good look at it. It was like a huge snake with spikes and spines all around it's head. When it burrowed into the ground, it spun, becoming a living drill. Its eyes were small and black, with four-inch triangular teeth filling it's entire mouth.

A shiver ran up Tegans spine, "Let's go, I really want to get out of here."

"Here." Ax said handing Alyson back over to Kris.

They all moved off at a jog in the same order as before. After five minutes of jogging the rumbles started up again.

"It's back!" Tegan yelled a little panicked.

"I know!" Ax yelled back.

They kept running but were keenly aware that the creature was right there next to them. Suddenly it burst from the wall on their right going straight for Kris. Kris dove sidewards landing on his back to prevent injury to Alyson. The creature reared as high as the tunnel would allow it and lunged for Kris with jaws wide open. Kris couldn't get up fast enough to move out of the way.

Suddenly Tegan was there, she had jumped in front of the creature and grabbed its top jaw. Using all of her werewolf strength she held the monster at bay, giving Kris enough time to get himself and Alyson out of harms way. The creature growled and closed its jaws. One of Tegans hands slipped and the creature caught it in its slowly closing jaws.

Tegan swore as she saw a cool malicious intelligence in the creatures black beady eyes as it slowly continued to close its jaws. Tegan couldn't get her hand free, and as one of the teeth started to pierce her hand she gave an animal scream of pain.

Ax swung his head around, he had been helping Kris move Alyson to safety, and saw Tegan banging one hand against the creature head whilst the other hand was trapped in the jaws. Without hesitation Ax jumped up and yelled the stunning spell. The creatures' rocky hide repelled it, so Ax ran towards it his sword raised. Reaching it he slashed leaving behind a deep gash along the back of the creature's neck.

With a roar the creature released Tegans hand and she fell to her knees curled around it. It swung its massive head around and lunged for Ax. Ax ducked to the side and swung his sword again leaving another gash.

"_Guys…alright? What's…screaming"_ Jacque said sounding worried.

"We're alright! Ax is all over it like a rash." Kris yelled as Ax left another red line along the creatures hide.

Kris pulled his wand out again and set off another of the bright flashes of light. This time the creature didn't dive into the ground but simply backed off out of range of the light source. Ax ran back to Kris grabbing Tegan and, pulling her to her feet, dragged her over.

"Are you right to run?" Ax asked Tegan.

"Yes, hang on one sec." Tegan replied.

"Hurry," Kris said as he scooped up Alyson, "This light is about to go out."

Tegan grabbed the bottom of her shirt and ripped a strip off, she quickly wrapped it around her hand and tucked the loose end in. "I'm right to go." She said.

"Good. You go first, Kris your next. Now go!" Ax screamed as the light on Kris' wand went out and the creature advanced again.

"Lumos" Tegan said as she started running. Her wand lit up and she kept running.

Ax stabbed his sword into the wall, muttering a spell under his breath. From the point where his sword entered the wall, ice began to radiate, spreading all over the tunnel walls. Pulling his sword from the wall Ax turned and bolted after the others, his sword dragging along the walls, ice sprouting and spreading from where the sword touched. Ax preyed that his ice wall, that he blocked the tunnel with behind them, would hold.

Ax caught up with the others and over took them, allowing the ice to go ahead and secure their way out.

"I can see a light." Ax yelled.

With an extra burst of speed they kept going.

"It's coming!" Tegan yelled.

"Keep going, we're almost there." Ax said.

The patch of light seemed to never get closer. Then suddenly it was right in front of them. Ax took his sword off the wall to stop the ice covering the steps and ran up. Kris and Tegan were right behind him. Tegan could swear she felt the rancid breath of the creature on her neck before she burst into the sunlight.

"_Guys, guys, can you hear me?"_ Jacque said.

"Loud and clear." Kris said from his place on the grass. They had all collapsed on the ground as soon as they were safe.

"_What happened down there? Is anyone seriously hurt?"_

"Tegan is injured but not badly and as for the rest we'll tell you once we get to the finish line." Ax replied.

Moving over to Tegan, Ax took her hand, "Gimme a look." He said.

Ax peeled back the makeshift bandage. Tegan gave a hiss of pain as the cloth tugged at her wound.

"Holy Shit Tegan! You have a hole clean through your hand!" Ax exclaimed.

They all heard the faint screech of "WHAT!" through their earpieces.

"It's not that bad!" Tegan said in exasperation.

"Give me a look at the hole." Kris said as he moved over for closer inspection.

"_Guys get your arses to the finish line already," _Jacque yelled.

"We're on our way." Tegan said grabbing back her makeshift bandage and wrapping it around her still bleeding hand.

With reluctance they all got up. Kris scooped up Alyson and moved off.

* * *

Justine watched as the three dragons attacked the British Quest'ians with fervour. They seemed to be giving them a really hard time, but because the only other school she had seen was the Kallaix student's she really didn't have a clue.

Ron now sported a bleeding burn down one leg and Draco was on his knee's trying to hold up a Magai shield over himself and Hermione. The Ridgeback was snapping towards Hermione and Steelwell threw his blizzard breath at Draco's shield. Unfortunately, because Draco's shield was holding out against heat, the sudden onset of the sub-zero stream caused it to fracture and break.

Wentworth reared his head back and roared at the sky, before letting loose an enormous stream of sparkling red flame at Harry, who was trying to get across to Ron.

Harry ducked and rolled under the stream, frustrating the massive dragon that bore down on Ron, who tried to run away. He ran straight for the lurking black Ridgeback that turned towards him with a snarl.

"Norbert?" Ron suddenly asked, causing it to back off, although it was still snarling.

I do not remember where I know these humans from but I know them… He said looking to Justine for guidance. 

"Back off then and let the Kallaix Dragons deal with them." Justine said.

Ron had taken this opportunity to get behind Draco, who had put up another, stronger shield. He wished desperately that Harry and Draco hadn't obliterated all knowledge of this event.

"What on earth was that all about, was she _talking_ to that fucking dragon?" Draco said, with a hard edge to his voice.

"Yeah… and the Dragon was Norbert, in first year Hagrid had him…"

"Oh no, I remember that. Shit. How the hell is she controlling the dragons!" Draco was fast losing his temper, but Ron was distracted when Harry suddenly went shooting past on the broom he had used for the air part of the Quest.

"He's repeating the Tri-wizard tournament, equalizing the odds so to speak. We have to keep one of the dragons occupied!" Ron yelled as he took a flying leap behind a boulder, grabbing Steelwell's attention.

Harry was flying as fast as he could on his broom, but it had nearly been not fast enough several times now. Streaming through the air he cast a spell on himself and sent a quick mind link to Ron. "_We have to get Hermione out of here, that's all that is required."_

"Draco! Get Hermione out of here!" he heard Ron yell.

Harry saw Justine move forward out of the corner of his eye and had a sudden brain wave, swinging the broom around he flew straight for her.

"Harry! Get your team out of here already!" Justine yelled.

Harry narrowed his eyes, his senses paid off as he felt the flame behind his reside and not touch him when he was in the vicinity of Justine and the other unconscious students.

_Get away from my human and die like a man!_ Wentworth screamed. Justine's head whipped around. 'Oh no!' she thought

"HOLD IT!" she yelled as loud as she could. The three Dragons all stopped what they were doing. "Aren't you being a bit… enthusiastic?"

Mistress, you told us to eliminate the Humans, and we are doing so, although they are making it hard as they have stolen one of our slumbering one's, Steelwell said plainly.

Justine cringed and grimaced. "Dammit, I'm sorry guy's I just meant I wanted you to go in fighting to protect the Sleeper, not to literally kill them…"

"You told THREE full grown dragons to KILL US?" Draco bellowed incredulously! "How dare you!"

Wentworth snarled and shut him up in a hurry, although he couldn't stop the glares Draco began to shoot at Justine.

"I'm sorry guys, take Hermione and move on now, I never meant for you to get hurt."

"No, just DEAD," Draco yelled as he picked Hermione up and stalked out of the clearing.

"Yes Draco, it's always exactly the way you think it is," Justine muttered coldly, watching as the only man she'd ever truly loved walked away, and remembering all too well the last time.

* * *

With the flags of the stands in sight, Kris, Tegan and Ax broke out into a jog. "We are so making good time," Kris told himself.

Ax took the lead as they moved around to the front of the stands, causing the students gathered around to break out in applause, and the ministers on the far podium to stand.

With a wave of his wand Dumbledore created a ribbon of light across their path and when Ax ran through it streamers broke into the air and Adam, Jeffery, Saul and Tanya rushed forward to give them Hugs.

"We just got the most amazing time!" Saul yelled. "Of course you are the first back but damn you did well!"

"With a precedent like that we can hope we'll get the time bonus!" Adam yelled over the din.

"Kallaix Students!" Dumbledore's voice came over the sea of voices. "Please come to me and bring your bag and sleeper for judging."

Tegan, who was holding the bag held it high above her head and grinned.

Up on the podium, Dumbledore opened it and poured the contents out on a tasselled cloth set on a stone podium. "We have the feather, the pearl, the diamond, all stars and the scale and the flower. Also, Miss Deveréaux Enervate, Alyson opened her eyes and smiled up at Kris who was still holding her.

"Hey how'd we do?" She asked him.

"It's so in the bag," he grinned down at her.

* * *

The Kallaix students were standing around in a small group, all of them looking rather bored. It was three in the afternoon and they hadn't been allowed to go and join their friends until the final school had crossed the line and the scores had been counted and announced.

Tegan, Ax, Kris and Alyson were muttering rebelliously to one another, and didn't have anyone else to talk to – the Hogwarts students were apparently annoyed with them and weren't talking, despite the fact that they had been getting on rather well before.

The Egyptians had been pretty badly hurt during the Underground section, and were secured in the medi-tent. Tegan had spent a few seconds in there, before telling the medi-witches that they could bandage her wound and put some salve on it to make it heal faster, and then they could let her go, as the smell of disinfectant was making her a little woozy.

"Finally," Tegan muttered, watching the last school cross the line. This school hadn't even gotten a chance to enter the maze until their allotted time, which had been a good two hours after Kallaix had gotten out of the Underground, which was a little … annoying, time wise.

"Ladies and gentlemen, could I have the school teams over with me at the podium, and the rest of you gathered around please?" Dumbledore's voice came wafting over the grounds, magically enhanced.

"We can do something!" Ax said exuberantly, bounding into movement now that he actually had something that he could do, rather than sit or stand around and talk of meaningless things while they were waiting for the rest of the schools to finish.

Rolling their eyes, and knowing that Ax disliked enforced time wasting almost as much as Alyson disliked being forced to stay still – she had been pacing back and forth ever since she'd been woken up.

"The positions stand as thus," Dumbledore began, and the Kallaix team were hoping for a mention straight off, but no such luck, as seemed to be the custom in such circumstances, the Hogwarts Headmaster began with the school coming last. The Kallaix group tuned out the sound of his voice, not really caring what the last points were.

"In third place," Dumbledore said, and everyone paid attention again, to gauge the competition, "Durmstrang," he paused for the cheering to come, and then die down again, "In second place, Hogwarts," there was a roar of triumph, outdoing everyone else, since the Hogwarts students were present in the most numbers. "And in first place, Kallaix Academy!"

Despite the fact that the rest of the competitors had merely nodded or gestured slightly when their positions were called, the Quest team couldn't allow the opportunity to pass. Ax stepped forwards and thrust his fists into the air, smiling charmingly at the ladies, who all started screaming and cheering wildly, Kris clenched one fist and smiled winningly, though it didn't produce half the effect of Ax's pose. Tegan looked about to scowl rebelliously, but Alyson pushed her forward, so she smiled, holding her hurt arm close to her chest, and nodded firmly. Alyson smiled sweetly.

"_Miss Snape, you can come out now_," Dumbledore's voice murmured behind them, and obviously he was using a spell to project his voice to the clearing where Justine was probably still sleeping off the night before.

* * *

Hearing this, Justine leapt up from where she'd been sitting on a rock, scratching Steelwell with one hand and Wentworth with the other. The dragon she now knew was called 'Norbert', of all things, was sulking around in the background, with no job to do, he was getting angry, she could feel it.

"Yes! We're free!" Justine cried delightedly.

Norbert trumpeted loudly at the sky, lifting his huge black head and shooting a burst of fire into the air before taking off heavily.

"Oh shit," Justine said, "I'm so gonna get blamed for this," she vaulted onto Wentworth's back, "Chase the annoying black one!" she commanded, "Or he'll hurt people."

Why should we care? Steelwell demanded.

"Because some of those people are from Kallaix."

At that, Wentworth jumped skywards and Steelwell fanned his wings open, thinking for a moment, then bounding gracefully into the sky, purple wings fanned and powerfully beating them.

Back at the podium, everyone had seen the burst of flame, and assumed this was Justine's way of saying that she had the message and was coming. Suddenly a huge black dragon burst out of the canopy, fire darting from its jaws.

"That's not Justine," Kris said.

"Duh, that's trouble," Ax replied. "That's dragon's not one of ours – I don't think she can control it very well."

Kris nodded. "Real trouble," he said, "What can we do?"

Just then, a second dragon came out of the clearing, sparkling green with a small black figure clinging to it's neck.

All over the place, everyone was yelling, asking what was going on. Dumbledore looked nervous – he seemed to have guessed something of what was happening.

"Justine's after him," Kris said, as Steelwell, as well, came up into the air and flew over to them. High above, the black dragon was turning towards the ground. Wentworth, along with Justine, was hanging around nearer to the ground, and the moment the other began to dive, they flew to get in it's way.

Wentworth tried to catch Norbert's neck in his large, powerful front claws, but the smaller, more agile dragon swerved out of the way and headed back into the sky, gaining height rapidly.

Jacque was already running, though no one was paying much attention to her, all eyes were fixed on the three dragons above.

Steelwell swirled down in a spiral to land, and trumpeted angrily to make everyone move. "I'm on it!" Kris yelled, as Jeffery turned, ready to move toward the dragon. Kris bolted for Steelwell and scrambled onto it's back. Everyone backed away as the purple dragon spread its wings, ready to take off again.

Jeffery looked up at them, then gave Dumbledore a message, "Steelwell says that he and Kris are going to try and engage Norbert while Kris and Justine try to bring Norbert down into the forest … Justine and Wentworth will keep him away from the students by blocking the way down. Who's Norbert?"

"Norby," Hagrid said, looking up at the dragon in the sky with a strange sort of protective longing.

"When I suggested this dragon, I thought he would be alright with the environment, considering that he was born here," Charlie said. "He's been with me for years, he shouldn't have a problem with humans."

"Well he's obviously developed one," Jeffery remarked darkly.

Kris and Justine were now herding Norbert towards the forest, and the dragon was slowly sinking to the ground under the combined force of Justine and Kris's wills. Kris was yelling something that sounded strangely like 'YEE-HA!"

Jeffery turned to Charlie, "Get to the dragon clearing," he told the dragon tamer, "Take Hagrid too – Justine and Kris might be able to get Norbert to the ground, but they can't do much more than that, you'll have to stun it, or calm it down, or whatever."

Charlie nodded quickly and hurried Hagrid along toward the forest, though the giant didn't take much convincing to go to 'Norby'.

* * *

"I'm sorry," Justine said, standing before Dumbledore half an hour later, Steelwell and Wentworth at her shoulders, looking mighty pleased with themselves for managing to force the interloper down to the ground. "I heard you say we could leave and said, Yay, we're free … Norbert took it literally. I was tired, OK?"

"Oh, so first you tell dragons to kill us, and then you let one you can't control loose on the school grounds. You're on a roll this morning," Draco said.

Wentworth and Steelwell turned, hissing, towards him. A slight hand gesture from Justine, mainly to show she was doing it, and a mental command brought them back under control. "Yeah, I couldn't control them at all," Justine said, "That's why you're not dragon-chow right now."

"I think that Miss Snape did a remarkable job this morning," Dumbledore said, "Perhaps, Miss Snape, you would like to get some sleep?"

"Hell yeah," Justine replied. "I'm going back to the boat."

* * *

Justine looked around the Great Hall of Hogwarts; it was once more set up for the United Youth Conference. "I want to speak tonight," she announced.

"Any particular reason for that?" Jeffery asked, "You didn't seem too interested last round."

"I can get full marks for one topic," Justine replied, "And I can't get full marks two days running, or I'll be disqualified from the Head's Debate – I want to speak once with the rest of the schools. This is the only chance I have … I didn't realise those were the rules last round," she looked beseechingly at the group and pouted, "Please?"

"Fine, who else is speaking?"

"Well, I can't," Tegan said, "And it doesn't matter so much points wise against Hogwarts today – Hermione's out of the running by the same rule Justine just quoted for us. We can put whoever feels like speaking up."

"I'd like to actually speak this time," Jeffery said.

"So Jeffery and …"

"Well, I don't want to," Alyson said.

"Neither," Kris agreed, "I'm not much of a speaker – I might have to speak in the Heads Debate, but apart from that, I'm out of it."

"Couldn't be bothered," Saul remarked.

"I'll go next round," Jacque said, "I have a topic I'd be interested in … but I have to think about arguments about it first."

"I'll go then as well," Adam said immediately, "I'm not in the mood today."

"Don't even look at me," Ax warned.

"So that leaves me," Tanya shrugged. "Fine, whatever."

Jeffery, Justine and Tanya made their way to the desk. The moment they sat down, Justine looked over at the Hogwarts table and stood up hurriedly. Draco Malfoy was sitting at the Hogwarts table, and, on seeing Justine, did exactly the same thing.

"That's it, I'm not talking," Justine said.

"Justine, you can't," Jeffery told her gently, "Once you've stood up, that's it – you can't leave, and no one else can take your place."

"So much for fine print," Justine muttered rebelliously, taking her seat again, as Draco did the same on the other side.

Tanya, seeing Pansy on the Hogwarts side, narrowed her eyes dangerously. Though she usually content to let things lie, this chick had caused way too many of Tanya's friends pain. Tanya stood up.

"Tanya, what are you doing?" Jeffery demanded. Tanya ignored him, tapping her finger on the orb in front of her.

"Yes?" Charlie asked.

"Kallaix Academy has a contestation in relation to the appointment of one of the Hogwarts speakers," she said, voice harsh and angry, ringing in the silent hall.

"What is that you wish to contest?" Charlie asked, with interest.

"I feel it necessary to point out the infringement on the rules which you informed us of during the first round," Tanya replied, flicking through a booklet which outlined the rules, which was on the desk in front of them, and exaggerated searching through it, "Rule number eight, in application to the host school – the host school is required to submit ten names only for the debating team," one hand balancing her on the desk, she leant forward and raised her other hand, her index finger, pointing straight at Pansy Parkinson, was dangerously steady, "That girl is not on the Hogwarts list of students."

Charlie flipped through a book that listed both the rules of the debating as well as the list of Hogwarts students. "You know, you're right," he said, "Pansy, I'm afraid you aren't permitted to be on the table and I'm afraid I'm going to have to remove five points from Hogwart's overall score from today's events. Please leave the table and appoint a replacement."

Tanya was laughing like a woman possessed when Pansy's replacement was chosen – Leon! She hoped she'd have a chance to go up against him today! Leon looked over at the Kallaix table and saw her, his next words were audible to the entire hall, "Oh shit."

"The first point raised is 'European school conscription is a bad thing', raised by Leon Necrose of Hogwarts," Charlie said, now that kafuffle had died down and the points had been raised.

"I'm speaking for this one," Jeffery said immediately.

"You'd better – you've had personal experience," Justine agreed, and Tanya nodded.

"I hope another dragon argument turns up," she remarked, "I could actually make a good argument there."

"With Charlie and Hagrid in control of the event, I'm sure there will be plenty of dragon arguments," Justine assured her friend, "You'll get your chance to shine."

Tanya sat back with a slight smile, Aiden and Rhiannon came over and curled up on her lap, demanding attention, which she was happy to give – like she'd be able to make intelligent comments on 'European School Conscription' after all.

Jeffery held up his hand to offer himself as Kallaix's speaker for this topic, and over the hall, a student from each of the other schools put themselves forward as well. Leon was invited to speak first, as the suggestee.

"As I'm sure most of you are aware," Leon began, looking around the hall, "I'm an Australian – kind of obvious I guess. Anyway, my father was British, and I was born here before I moved to Australia when I was a toddler – that's around two-three. Because of my father, and the fact that I was born here, I was required to attend Hogwarts, as I was put down to attend when I was born. When I found out that I had to come to Britain to attend school, I was pretty put out… But of course, I didn't stand much of a chance at getting into Kallaix – as I'm sure you're aware, it's very exclusive so I would have ended up in some out of the way place, half way across the continent with second rate teaching anyway… but this is a life story … not an argument … I'm not very good at speaking … someone else can now."

Jeffery immediately lunged for the orb, touching it and receiving permission to speak. "I was in the same figurative boat," he said as a beginning statement, "As a British born and raised, I was required to attend Hogwarts. Then I got an invitation from Kallaix Academy, this created a loop-hole, which I jumped at immediately. The invitation to Kallaix overrode my enrolment in Hogwarts, and I can say now that I'm glad it did. The Ministry tried to make me stay in the country, they didn't want me joining a school in another hemisphere, but my parents were happy for me and we moved to Australia. My entire family had to up and move because the Ministry wouldn't let me leave the country to attend a different school. We already owned a house in Australia, but my mum and dad still had to move their business base, and give up most of their social life in Britain to restart in Australia.

"More problems arose when I went for my Apparating license. In Australia we can get our license at sixteen, when we come of age, but as I was still a British citizen, I was supposed to wait until I was seventeen – a full year after the rest of my friends had theirs. I would have had to have stayed behind when they all went partying half way across the continent in places that didn't have floo! My parents, and Ax's, both had to go the Ministry to get special permission for us to get our licenses!

"As should be clear by now, this is completely unreasonable! Why can't students have a choice in which school they attend? Why can't we chose our schools, and our countries, and get the same treatment as the rest of the people in the schools we chose? The answer – some Ministry's are just unreasonable, conservative. The Australian Ministry has tried to work around this before, but was met with open hostility … this was two years ago, just before I wanted to get my Aparating license."

The Kallaix students all clapped, as did Leon, which started most of the Hogwarts students, the Egyptians, also, were happy to give their support to the school which Justine belonged to. Justine had, after all, offered her friendship to Electra, their Head Girl. Most of the rest of the schools could appreciate Jeffery's arguments, and gave him a round of applause.

Tanya watched as a few more arguments went on, Justine and Jeffery both contributing a comment here or there, but none of them were anything she was particularly interested in, or that she knew much about. She beginning to feel a little stupid, but was happy to note that, like her, Leon was keeping out of the talking as well.

Finally, however, the break she was waiting for came along. "Dragons are a dangerous species," Charlie read out. Justine lazily reached for the orb, obviously having a few things to say on the topic, Tanya, however, lunched forward, slapped her friends hand out of the way and put her hand on the orb.

Justine smiled slightly – she knew when she wasn't wanted – and sat back. On the Hogwarts table, Leon had been pushed into speaking by Harry and Draco, both of whom where too pissed off about the mornings dragon fiasco to comment on the breed at present.

Tanya quickly realised that if anyone managed to get the Norbert thing out in the open, she'd never be able to convince the rest of the gathering that dragons weren't dangerous – that was just a one off occasion.

Beauxbatons had raised the point, and a young slip of a girl came forward to take over the speaking, raising a few points, but mostly just on the fact that Norbert, that morning, had been fairly dangerous, in her estimation.

Leon went to speak next, but Tanya glared across at him, warning him not to try anything. "Tanya Bussa," Charlie said, when Leon stepped back from the orb rather than try to challenge his friend.

"First off, this morning we were dealing with a dragon that has been held in captivity for most of it's life. Norbert was given the opportunity of going free, free to be himself, be a dragon and do what dragons were born to do, and he took it. Dragons were never meant to be domesticated, as such. How would you feel if you were caged for your entire life, and then given the opportunity to go free? Norbert saw that opportunity, and he tried to take it. You will also notice that the student body was only protected earlier today through the actions of two other dragons, Wentworth and Steelwell, two of the dragons who have long protected my school.

"In Australia, dragons have been treated with utmost respect for time out of memory. When the first Aboriginals appeared on our land, they learned to live in harmony with the dragons, and that relationship was continued when white wizards turned up.

"Dragons will not harm one who gives them respect and friendship, unless there are extenuating circumstances. Observe," she held her hands out to either side, and Aiden and Rhiannon both seized her wrists in their jaws and growled softly.

"Oh, I'm dying. They're killing me, I'm bleeding!" She said boredly, "Someone, save me!"

Jeffery and Justine were looking as if they were desperately trying not to laugh. The idea that Aiden or Rhiannon could actually hurt something was, to one who'd been to a school with the two little dragons, completely ludicrous.

Aiden and Rhiannon let go of Tanya's wrists, which weren't even dented, and Rhiannon jumped down from the table to join Tegan. Settling on Tegan's lap, she looked over at the Beauxbatons table, "Grr-rar," she said, then buried her head in Tegan's dangling sleeve.

"As you will have noticed, I was completely unharmed," Tanya pointed out.

"Well duh," Justine muttered quietly.

Tanya offered a couple more arguments, all of which were completely solid and on the behalf of the dragons, and revolving around the fact that it was humans causing the problems, not the dragons themselves. Her final argument was, "To other species apart from dragons and humans, a dragon would not be perceived as being dangerous. It is only human perception."

Charlie looked at Tanya and nodded, letting her know that he appreciated her arguments to defend poor Norbert. Hagrid was beaming at her.

"The next topic, raised by Grendwell, is 'Should teenagers be able to marry at sixteen, as the magical law dictates, or should the legal age be upped to eighteen, when they are out of school'. Grendwell, would you begin the discussion?"

A boy came forward, confident and presented a detailed and well thought out argument, outlining many of the problems with younger marriages, many revolving around maturity levels. When he sat down, there was another round of applause for a very good argument, but the topic was not yet closed, as he had only eight arguments, when to close a topic, there had to be ten.

Draco was the next to speak, "When people are young they haven't settled down yet, and haven't fully discovered what they think they want from life. Unfaithfulness would run high, and the divorce rate would sky-rocket. What's the point in getting married when you'll divorce three weeks later?" he sat back.

Justine came forward with the next point, "And we all know that teenage boys have such a high level of maturity that they get jealousy attacks at the drop of a hat … many of which are unfounded, causing the female in the situation to believe her only option is divorce because her husband doesn't trust her."

Draco immediately came to the orb again, though this wasn't strictly allowed in the rules, as he wasn't invited to speak, "That's where proof comes in," he said coolly, "If the spouse were to present their dear little wifies with undeniable proof, doesn't that, in fact, merit the husbands distrust?" he didn't take his hand off his orb, which stayed lit up, but Justine came forward and put her hand on the orb as well, so that they were both lit up.

"It is often a case that the so called 'undeniable proof' is, in fact, not undeniable, but false, and a matter of perception from the husband. It misleads the husbands mind, feasting on their doubts and fears, escalating them into full-blown paranoia. This causes the husband to explode at the wife, often resulting in physical violence."

"People! Bring it back to marriage!" Charlie tried to intervene. Justine and Draco both sat back a little sulkily and Nhi-Lon Fohs came forward to speak.

"There is also the issue of Inter-House Rivalries and relationships," the speaker said, "Most schools are not comfortable with Inter-House friendships, let alone relationships."

Justine immediately slammed a hand down on the orb, just as Draco did, and both started talking without waiting for permission again.

"There's no problem with that at Kallaix, the only place we have any Inter-House rivalry is on the sports ground," Justine said.

"If the people involved are really serious, they can overcome that," Draco said at the same time, "Just most of the time they don't seem to have the stamina."

They both glared at each other, then Draco continued, rebutting Justine's comment. "Have you forgotten that you used to be a Hogwarts student yourself? This is where you began, can you really think that Kallaix is so different? You always seemed to think Inter-House relationships could work in the past."

"I still do," Justine said coldly, "At Kallaix such relationships are accepted and embraced. In fact, it seems that most relationships are, in fact, Inter-House. I'm even dating someone from another house."

Kris, just taking a sip from a drink of water, choked and spat out the offending mouthful. "What, him?" he asked, nodding to Kris, "He's the Head Boy, it doesn't count."

"No, you dick, his name is James, and he actually has class, he's in the same house as Kristopher, Steelwell, the Australian equivalent of Slytherin. I, on the other hand, am in Wentworth, or to use your little 'Hogwarts terms', I'm in Gryffindor, as usual. Note that we don't have a Hufflepuff – try calling Petersen that and you're asking to get bitch-slapped."

"So if I was at Kallaix everything would be dandy, and I'd get to wear pretty purple," Draco said, starting to yell, obviously getting angry.

Justine looked at him, "Purple is so not your colour," she replied. "And besides, Kallaix would never let you in, it's very exclusive. We have something you could never achieve, we're at a higher level. We don't actually accept supercilious, pure-blooded, antagonistic bastards!" she yelled the last word back at him.

"I'm surprised they took you," Draco sneered at her.

"Not only did they take me, baby, they made me freaking leader! … one of them," she calmed down a little on the last sentence.

"Our beautiful deity, our luxurious leader, our musical muse, and our idealistic idol our … what starts with 'P'?" Kris was stage whispering from somewhere behind Justine.

Charlie glared at him, "You, shut up, you two, stop it," he said, finally managing to but in, as he had been trying to do ever since the comment from Nhi-Lon Fohs.

Draco came straight in over the top of him, "I suppose you've got the little perfect life then, do you?"

"Yeah, you too … Head Boy I see … or is that just the money talking?"

"Yeah, my money … what was it for you? Your skirt? Or lack thereof?"

"Kallaix appreciates feminine beauty and the ability to voice it! We have perfectly good uniforms. The girls at your school look so dowdy it makes me wonder if they're trying to hide their unsightly legs!"

Draco's eyes slitted dangerously, he was leaning forward, standing at the desk, on hand on the desk, one on the glowing orb. "Your school and I use the term loosely, doesn't come close to the sense of decorum or class that Hogwarts achieves."

Justine was standing, one hand on her hip, one hand on the orb, head high, "No, your little school still likes to use archaic terms like 'mud blood' and 'pure blood'. The fact that your students use these bloody terms and think they make you better than other people is just sad."

Draco was frankly shocked. "How DARE you! If I caught a single student calling another student a mud-blood in my school…"

"RIGH' THEN!" Hagrid, who had finally come to the understanding that this fight went beyond the conference, stood and held up his arms. "Both Miss Snape and Mr Malfoy have finished this argument pretty well."

"Yes, and I think that will be the end then thanks. Thankyou to all of today's participants, I'll post all the marks on the scoring sheet that all schools may view tomorrow afternoon on the wall in the entrance hall. Mr Malfoy and Miss Snape, could I see you please?" Charlie was obviously frazzled, calling an end to all of the proceedings before the designated time.

* * *

Charlie Weasley say with his forehead resting on his fingers tips, elbows braced on the edge of the table in his new office. He took a deep breath and looked up at the two students waiting for him to speak. Two of the most influential, and well, temperamental students present at the unicorn Hunt. Damn. Justine Snape stood with her arms gracefully crossed across her chest, one foot tapping impatiently. She was looking out the window and a look of annoyance flickered across her carefully blank face when she couldn't suppress it. Draco Malfoy sat reclining in the chair opposite one arm hanging back over the chair. He was scrutinizing Charlie; he hadn't even had to look at the boy to know he was.

This was going to be bad. He could already see it. Two of the most powerful people in Britain and Australia respectively, and he had to discipline them in some fashion. How the hell did that work? He was a Weasley, and while he never listened to all of the crap about his family not being as good as other Purebloods, he still felt very nervous in the presence of those who were his social superiors ... even if that wasn't supposed to come into things at school. Well, he had to say something. He took a deep breath, then began, "Now, I'm sure you know what we're hear to discuss," he tried to make his voice seem at least a little bit stern.

"He-

"She started it!" both teens cried at once.

Charlie saw Justine's eyes widen and she turned from the window, pointing one finger at Draco. "You definitely stated it with your whole at school marriage crap- "

" -No you did with your incessant bitching and arguing you know- "

" -You just had to bring it up didn't you-"

" -You wanted to fight me and you know it you crazy-"

" -YOU STARTED IT MALFOY!- "

Charlie closed his eyes. This was not happening. This was so definitely NOT happening. How could the two most powerful people here be reduced to five year olds bickering over getting into trouble? He watched, growing more and more disbelieving as they screamed back and forth. It was worse than watching Percy and the Twins, when Percy had been seven and the Twins five. Charlie stopped himself from reminiscing on his past, and tried to think what in the world he could do in this situation. It was just ... mind-blowing that two intelligent people could be so childish.

But then to his complete astonishment, they seemed to rapidly reduce in age yet again when Draco stood to use his over six foot tall height over Justine, yelling down at her, and in response, Justine narrowed her eyes and stamped down with as much force as she could muster on his foot in her lethal looking stiletto's. Then shoved him hard in the chest.

Draco fell back into his chair yelping and holding his foot and seemed now to notice that Charlie was even in the room, yelling "Sir! You saw what she did!"

Charlie looked at Justine who had resumed her stance by the window and blithely said "He started it."

Charlie took a deep breath. Now he really had to do something. If he didn't, they would soon be putting on nappies and crying at each other, each attempting to drown out the other's cries with their own. Despite the amusing mental picture that made, Charlie felt that he would surely cry himself if it actually happened.

"You two will sit down and shut up, right now," Charlie said, speaking at a normal level. Surprising him, both Justine and Draco did as he requested. "Whoever started this notwithstanding, you both require discipline for acting as you did."

"But it wasn't my fault!" both of them cried simultaneously.

Charlie was now seeing dramatic parallels with his own family life - first from arguments between Bill and Percy, and then those between the Twins and everyone bar him and Bill. Then the brainwave came - the perfect solution to bickering teens. "You two will go to your rooms, right now, and you will remain there until you are able to act as mature adults. If I see you out of your rooms and acting with the childishness that you are currently displaying, I will send you straight back, and lock the doors until I am convinced that you can behave in a manner that better reflects your schools. You will leave now, go straight there, and talk to no one on your way. Is that clear, both of you?"

* * *

Alyson Deveréaux sat in the white lounge room of the Kallaix _Starstream _at sunrisecradling the cup of hot chocolate brought to her by the house elf Winky.

"Ahh" she said to herself, sinking back into the couch. "I hate sleeping on the boat, it sends the Unicorn in me nut's."

From a nearby windowsill Ax responded, "If you ever want to get out of this place, I'm here for you. Okay hunny?"

Alyson smiled up at him, he had always been so protective of her, it was kind of nice when she had come out to find him also emerging from his room. They would get some alone time. "So, tell me already…" She said sensing Ax had something he wanted to get off his chest.

"Alyson, would you say I'm a bad person?" He asked frowning.

Alyson raised an eyebrow. "Are you growing a conscience Ax? Who told you that you were a bad person?"

"No-one, it's just… I think I'm treating someone badly, but don't know how or why or even how to stop."

Alyson smiled. "Ah Tanya."

Ax grimaced, "Yeah. When she told me she used to love me, I came to the assumption I was having these weird feeling as a pride thing, you know the old 'wanting what you can't have' cliché, but its not going away Ally, Its just getting worse, and two nights ago I felt… _jealousy._"

"You were jealous of her?"

"No. Every other bloody guy she even looked at."

Alyson had no idea how to tell Ax this. "Have you considered that maybe you… like this girl?"

"Considered, I've come to the conclusion… hell that's the only bloody conclusion. Ally, I've never felt this before how the hell do I get rid of it!"

Alyson went to him and wrapped her arms around him. "Ax, don't take this wrong, but over the years a lot of girls have been rejected or used by you, now maybe its your turn to feel that pain."

"Yeah, well it sucks."

"Welcome to angst town, my little brother, population you."

"I wanna go home."

* * *

The Kallaix team entered the dining room promptly at seven to have breakfast before heading down to the hunt arena to prepare themselves for the days hunt. Justine had that scary looking her eye she got when she was solely focused on winning something. Alyson and Jacque were going over some last minute landscape and terrain issues, Tegan just looked hungry as usual. The boys were all coming along for support, and Tanya was hoping for breakfast with Leon.

"Morning Red," said his familiar voice somewhere to her left, and she turned to find Leon standing with Seamus and Malcolm.

"Morning boys how are we this morning?"

"Alright Red, how about you?" Seamus teased her by using Leon's nickname. She whacked him round the head as Leon remarked, "I'm the only one that gets away with calling her that, and that's only because she decided that after trying to kill me like ten hundred times that it wasn't worth having to apologise so I'd talk again."

"I never apologised," Tanya said, "You ignored me, I ignored you, and you ended up running around after me trying to apologise_ to_ me … as I recall it."

Seamus and Malcolm both snorted with laughter, and Leon managed to ignore them. "That Japanese training really paid off," Tanya remarked, linking arms with Leon.

"Something like that," Leon agreed. "Wanna do breakfast?"

"Where?" Tanya asked, smiling up at him.

"Hogwarts table? Unfortunately we aren't allowed to leave the Hogwarts grounds," Leon said, "So there isn't anywhere particularly exciting we can go …"

"Hogwarts table sounds fine," Tanya replied. "Guys! I'm eating at the Hogwarts table this morning," she called over to her friends.

Ax gave a cool look at Leon, and Alyson smiled slightly – well, it seemed her 'little brother' would be coming to talk to her soon. Tanya and Leon wondered off together, chatting. Seamus walked over to join Saul and Ax, engaging them in conversation. Malcolm gave a slight snort of disgust and slouched off on his own.

"So, what have you been doing?" Leon asked.

"How's that for a lame start to a conversation?" Tanya replied, "'So, how have you been?' – Leon, you spent _all_ of yesterday standing with me! Not that much has happened since then!"

Leon laughed, "I'm just a little … out of it – everyone seems to think that we're dating or something."

"Why?" Tanya demanded, laughing.

"I think the general reason is that we are both from Australia," Leon replied, smiling, "And the fact that I spent most of the day with you yesterday … the fact that I'm asking you to breakfast seems to have made them sure. They aren't listening when I'm trying to tell them that we are just good friends."

Tanya rolled her eyes. "Idiots," she remarked. "I'm single, and always have been …"

"What about Ax?" Leon asked. "Isn't he the bloke you told me you had a crush on?"

"I'm over him," Tanya replied, a little unconvincingly, "I have since decided that he is unfeeling womaniser and I can do better."

"And?"

"He's trying to get me to go out with him," Tanya replied, "Ever since I changed my looks and told him I was over him." She sounded honestly confused.

"That's the worst thing to tell a playboy," Leon said, "I've seen it happen before – a girl tells a guy she's over him before he's slept with her, and he can't think of anything else _but_ sleeping with her."

Tanya frowned, "Why?" she asked.

"You want what you can't have," Leon replied. "But I don't think that's all, is it?"

"I think I'm starting to break," Tanya admitted. "He's just been so _nice_ all the time, and courteous … if he manages to keep up much longer … I don't think I can keep telling him to eff off."

Leon smiled, "I can tell him for you, if you like?"

"And he'd listen to you any more?" Tanya demanded. "I was considering asking Justine to, but I don't think I will … maybe he has changed."

Leon shook his head. He'd seen this before – this Ax would break her heart … "So, what do you want for breakfast?"

"Something," Tanya replied.

"Well, that really narrows it down," Leon joked as they walked into the hall. "Something … well done – such a _big_ decision."

"I _know_, maybe something … edible." Tanya replied. Leon guided her to the Hogwarts table, where most of the students looked at her with wariness and some with open dislike. Leon scowled at most of the table and Harry and Draco moved over to give them a seat.

"Really?" Leon asked. "Wow, you're on a roll this morning."

"Brought your girlfriend?" Daphne sneered, "We don't _want_ Australians at this table!"

"Oh, so now you don't want me?" Leon demanded, starting to look dangerous. Despite the fact that he was _obviously_ no match for Ax when it came to swordsmanship, he was one of the better ones at Hogwarts, and very few people would risk getting him mad. As he was generally easy going, this usually wasn't something that anyone ran the risk of very often.

"Of course we want you here," Harry said soothingly, "And Tanya too," he and Draco both also turned to glare at Daphne. Leon was surprised that Draco was helping out, and wondered if there was some alternate motive in the Hogwarts Head Boys actions.

"So, Tanya," Draco greeted her.

"Hi Draco," she greeted him pleasantly.

"So, Justine has a boyfriend back home?" Draco asked.

"Who, James?" Tanya said, "No, she was just saying that to piss you off … she was with him for … what was it? Three days and one date before he got clingy and turned into 'Mr. Slytherin Stalker Guy' in Kris's words … oh wait, you're in Slyth – I shouldn't have said that. I'm not allowed to talk to you."

Draco arched one eyebrow, "Why ever not?" he asked. 

"Tegan forbade me to talk to you about Justine because at the party I blabbed while I was drunk and I never think before I speak," Tanya replied, then thought for a moment, "In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have told you that either."

Back at the Kallaix table, Justine was munching on some toast when her 'little man', a scary looking huge grey owl, landed in front of her carrying letters from home.

_I have helped the owl Nahnook to bring all of the mail _Rhiannon said proudly as she too landed and began to stalk the bacon on the edge of Tegan's plate.

Tegan grinned, "And you did the best job!" She knocked the bacon onto the table for Rhiannon.

Justine was flipping through the envelopes. "Jacque, from your mum. Tegan, one each from Mark and your parents. Mine. Kris. Adam…" She broke off and swore, dropping a blue envelope on her pile.

"What's the matter?"

"James again… How can I just get him to move on?"

"He had a taste of Justine, how can he go back from that?" Saul asked with a wicked glint in his eye.

"He'll move on or he'll cop it," was Ax's immediate response, "And you'll not talk that way about Justine, or you'll cop it."

"You're just jealous." Justine retorted as she poured orange juice into her cup.

"Damn right."

The group laughed and began to read their letters from home. "Isaac says that Bathie had another near miss yesterday with dragons blood." Saul quipped, his letter obviously from his younger brother.

"Bathie has a near miss everyday." Tegan retorted, "Mark says he stayed in Hogsmede last night and we'll be seeing him today."

"Oh god, he thinks he's ready now to give 'us' another chance!" Justine spat. "_I _told _him_ it wasn't working out after three dates and this is his response." Justine was totally absorbed in her letter.

Kris and the group exchanged guilty looks. They had conned Justine into going out with James, a seventh year Steelwell student. Justine had told them she wasn't interested in dating anyone but they had dared her. Now he was turning into a right royal stalker.

"What we had was special… What the hell is this guy _on?_" Justine let out in frustration.

Kris leaned over and plucked up the letter. Throwing it in the air he whipped out his wand and said _"Incendio," _and watched the letter go up in flames. "Stop thinking about him, you're in too much of an intense mood for James right now. Read the letter from your mum."

* * *

A quarter past eight o'clock found Justine, Tanya, Alyson and Tegan saddling the Llysanyins while Jacque cleaned the mini-mikes from the day before to be used again.

The boy's had already gone back to the ship to put their formal uniforms on, and Tanya and Jacque were going to dash up when all of the chores were done. The press were already beginning to assemble, all squabbling over who would get the better position for photography and rushed questions.

Alyson and Isis were going to do the dressage, but it had been a close call, Emmaline Greengrass having had called that Alyson had an unfair advantage due to her horses breed. Dumbledore and Maxime had over rode this by pointing out that in some ways it was actually harder for Alyson to do this event due to the known temperament of the Llysanyin race.

They didn't know Isis was the sweetest of them all.

Severus had also … bluntly reminded Mrs. Greengrass that the Kallaix students _had_, in fact, warned that they were bringing Llysanyins with them, and as no one had chosen to protest then, why was all this idiocy was going on now?

"Hey hun! Are you two ready to bring us home he big win!" Justine said to Alyson and Isis as she led Anubis out of the stables to put his saddle on.

"We're looking good huh?" Alyson asked gesturing to how shiny Isis was and how clean her riding uniform was looking. "Do you think you could put on my scarf pin though? I always get it crooked and skew my scarf."

"I'll do it," Tanya said as she walked in with Tegan and Loki, who was freshly saddled, "Then I'll help you lug that bloody saddle on to Nubie." She scratched the horse in question on the nose, wiped her hands on a cloth and set about working on Alyson's scarf and pin.

"I think they're going to throw a storm at us at some stage today, so we all need to pack our ponchos in the saddle bag. And make sure we bring plenty of water, Jacque said there are streams in the forest, but she can't guarantee the cleanliness of the water." Justine rattled off as she climbed up on the other side of Anubis and lugged his saddle blanket on to the massive horse.

"And we all remember what happened that time they threw the flash flood at us on the Byron Bay circuit…" Tegan said as she lugged the saddle up to Justine, who lifted it down over the other side and adjusted it to sit on Anubis's back straight.

"I still don't believe people pay hundreds of dollars to be covered in the sort of crap we were that day…" Tegan said.

"Yeah," Justine's voice came from somewhere under the horse as she adjusted his girth. "And we got gallons of skanky mud for free."

The four broke out laughing and even the horses looked amused. "Mud slide city baby!" Alyson giggled.

Suddenly the sound of a gong rang across the pitch followed by the voice of McGonnagal, which sounded like she was standing close by although she was probably down near the tents at the starting arena. "Could all Dressage contestants please make their way with their horses down to the Hunt Arena… thank you."

"Well I'm on." Alyson said.

"You'll do fine. You've got the most beautiful horse here," Justine and Tegan called after her as she walked away. Behind them, Loki snorted, and probably would have tried to bite if they'd been close enough.

* * *

Alyson loved doing dressage on Isis. Because Isis's breed's individual attributes include that of the understanding of humans and humanoids, Alyson could focus entirely on how well she was sitting on the horse, and how well she was performing and their overall time.

"And the next rider, Electra Williams of Thundreds…" The announcer called as the pretty dark haired girl rode out onto the pitch in fawn riding jacket and jodhpurs.

Alyson, who had yet to mount, took one last look over her horse and checked the saddle was still sitting straight and perfect. She had arrived two places after Electra to the riding arena and so it was to be her go soon … Electra put on a stunning display of riding, pulling her horse neatly and beautifully around the course, slipping in and out of trots and canters and saluting with elegance.

Daphne had gone first and Alyson had to admit she had performed well, it was obvious why someone as nasty as she was leading the Hogwarts riding team. She had the type of confidence and skill Alyson had only ever seen on a few people, those who had been riding since the cradle. Her chestnut mare she was riding had obeyed her every command and she had pulled in a beautiful 8.9, putting her into an early lead.

Electra rode neatly off the course and turned her horse in an efficient circle to receive her score. Alyson crossed her fingers that she would beat Daphne, but when the number 8.6 was shot into the air Alyson had to admit it was a decent score, and one she could be proud of.

The next rider was Nhi-Lon Fohs, and she did remarkably well, although, if one were to be picky, her arms were sloppy.

Alyson mounted…

The white horse and its blonde rider walked proudly to the middle of the arena. They were a striking pair, the horse ethereal, pure muscle and satiny coat, the rider holding her head high. Alyson moved in front of the judge's table and saluted, waiting for the indication for her to start her routine. When that time came she pulled into the arena and Isis took the command and pulled into a smooth trot, moving around the edge of the arena with perfect extension. When they had done a perfect trotting circle twice around, Alyson pulled Isis into a canter at point C.

Isis moved around the arena almost like a spectre, so light and rhythmic was her footfall.

Isis came down from the canter into a walk, cutting into the middle of the arena to point C and when she had reached the midpoint she stopped for a perfect four seconds.

Alyson smiled. This was so 'in the bag' to use Kris's language. She checked her posture and position in the saddle. Isis was pulling through the rest of the course on her own, doing a beautiful job. When she again approached point G she stopped Isis and again saluted, before turning and trotting off the course.

Alyson turned Isis, and held her breath as she waited for her score. Dumbledore turned to Maxime and both compared their marks, then Emmaline, who looked disgruntled. Dumbledore smiled and raised her score… 9.3.

As the event wore on none of the top three marks could even be touched.

Justine and Tegan, both of whom had been sitting in the stand during the event, launched themselves onto Alyson laughing merrily. Justine had yet to put on her scarf or even her jacket, and was only wearing her unbuttoned white blouse tied up under her breasts.

Justine grabbed Alyson by the shoulders and yelled "WE WILL CONQUER!"

The other two girls threw their fists in the air and screamed "Aussie Aussie Aussie!"

"Well," said the sadistic voice from behind them. "The slut's think they're going to beat us today."

Daphne and pansy stood there in the Hogwarts all black riding uniform. "Pansy, Daphne, as much as I love bitch fighting with you, I just don't care right now, if you'll excuse us, we have a hunt to go win."

Justine turned to walk away, but Daphne grabbed her arm. She looked Justine up and down. "You want to know the reason Draco didn't want you anymore? Because you're a tart. Look at you."

Justine threw off Daphne's touch and turned on the girl.

"Pansy, Daphne, you need to seriously take a look at yourselves, you're nothing more than hookers yourselves, always trying to win the popular boys attention, or just wanting them for what they can do for your social standing." Alyson shook her head and lead the way for the three Australian girls to walk away."

"Watch your back today freak, it's called the unicorn hunt after all" Daphne called after them.

* * *

Justine laughed, "Saul is that uniform actually clean _and _ironed?"

"Well if we happen to make it into the Australian press I don't want my adoring public to have to go without gorgeous pictures of my clean and ironed self."

Nearby Jacque rolled her eyes. "I caught some of the funniest footage I've ever taken with him trying to use the iron, he finally used the "perificus" curse on them while he held them stiff. Effective if not practical."

"Oi! Don't diss my methods and I won't be forced to diss yours."

"If you can find a single fault in how good Jacque looks in that outfit I will give you money." Jeffery said blandly.

"KALLAIX!" a woman screamed from somewhere, "get over here, you're up next."

Justine, Alyson and Tegan lead the group over to where they had set up a sort of Junket for the press to get a five-minute interview with the students and the minister from each country. As they reached the door Justine let out a delighted squawk and jumped at the tall man standing just inside the curtain. "GREG!"

"Hey shorty," he said with a twinkle in his eye, "we're on next."

"Hey dad." Kris said as he gave his dad one of those single-armed-manly hugs. "Remember that we just need to answer the basics and I'll handle all of the student matters."

Greg grinned and adjusted his son's tie, "I'll handle any ministry questions, and if a student question is directed straight at me and I don't know the answer you're looking for, I'll confer with you okay?"

"Ladies and gentlemen," A voice boomed from the other side of the curtain. "I give you Kallaix Academy lead by Kristopher Crompton and Justine Snape, and the Australian Minister of magic Gregory Crompton."

Justine and Kris followed Greg out from behind the curtain and they found themselves to be in a large big-top tent erected in the arena, which had a few moments ago been used for the Dressage. They found themselves to be walking towards a table across the stage at which six chairs sat. Justine could see that it was to be a few sitting with the rest of the group standing behind them. The press were all standing in front of the desk and as the group had emerged the flash bulbs had gone nuts with voices calling from all sides "Mr Crompton over here!" "Miss Snape over next to Mr Crompton!" "All the students together please!"

Justine plastered on a smile and moved for the desk. She took one of the seats with Ax on one side of her and Kris on the other. Greg sat on the other side of his son and Alyson and Saul sat on the other side of him. The others stood around the back of the group and in true practised style they all smiled yet again now they were in a group and let the photo's be taken.

"Okay, any questions?" The voice, which turned out to be Lee Jordan again, boomed.

All the hands flew up, and Justine was surprised to recognise the amount of Australian media in the audience. "Melissa Stone." She said clearly watching the young "_teen with weekly_" reporter go crimson before composing herself and asking, "Miss Snape, are you enjoying your stay here at Hogwarts?"

Justine smiled. "I am having the best time here in England, I feel as if they've welcomed me back. Of course I do miss the homeland."

Melissa smiled and continued, "Rumour is that you held a massive party on your cruiser the other night."

"Well for once the rumours are entirely true." Justine smiled.

The press all started yelling but eventually a tartan wearing man with a heavy moustache stood and asked, "Is it true that the guest list for your party not only held all of the Australian contingent but also Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy, Oliver Wood and Mark Hall?"

Kris touched Justine's arm under the table, hidden from the eyes of the press, warning that this man was going to fish for comments on the supposed love triangle between Mark, Justine and Kris.

Saul's voice said from the other end of the table, "It wouldn't be very appropriate for us to say who was taking some time out at our party would it?" gaining himself laughs.

The questions continued for awhile, with quite a few directed at Greg and Kris about the conference so far. Finally, Lee called for the last question, and a blonde lady in fluoro yellow robes stood and said, "Rita Skeeter, tell me, Justine, rumour is that you were once attached to Draco Malfoy, a supposed guest at your party, is this one of those rumours that just happens to be true?"

Justine had a second of mental blanks before composing herself and saying, "If I did in fact have a past with Mr Malfoy, don't you think it would be in the papers like the rest of my life," she laughed and grinned. "And if indeed you say it was in the past, don't you think that's where I'd want to keep it?"

Lee stood up and gestured for the next school to be called as the Australians moved over in front of a wall, which was suddenly emblazoned with the Kallaix Academy emblem. "That was a low blow," Kris whispered in her ear.

"I noticed, how the hell did she find out, what paper was she from?" Justine whispered back heatedly as she grinned up at Kris.

Finally they all moved out into an antechamber of the tent and were able to watch as Shaklebolt lead the Hogwarts team into the room. Draco was among them.

* * *

The flash bulbs came to life as Draco, Harry and Hermione rounded the corner. Harry sighed as he walked into the tent, he was glad that Kingsley was with them – he _hated_ the press. Draco, walking beside him, seemed to be completely in his element, but Hermione slipped her hand into his with an understanding expression on her face.

Harry looked around the room, hardly expecting to see anyone familiar. Reporters were always changing, he'd once tried to keep track of them, but it had failed miserably. Suddenly he _did_ spot a familiar face.

"Oh shit," he muttered.

Draco looked over at him, and Harry nodded to a woman wearing lurid yellow robes who was rather hard to miss. "Rita Skeeter," Draco muttered.

"If she tries _anything_ I'm so telling," Hermione muttered, more to reassure Harry than anything else.

"Thanks," Harry muttered, "But I think now that I actually have some experience with reporters that I'll be able to deal with her a little better than I did last time."

"Yeah, first rule of interviewing, _never_ allow a quick quotes quill," Draco grinned back at him.

Harry rolled his eyes, "Yeah, now someone bothers to _tell_ me this," he said, and Draco laughed. Hermione sighed – when it came to Harry and Draco, she often got left out of the conversation. Who'd ever have guessed that those two could get so close?

"Well, I would have told you … if you'd asked," Draco shrugged.

"No, you'd have told me I was an idiot and acting like a stuck-up Gryffindor who didn't know anything," Harry replied.

The questions came hard and fast with Hermione generally left out of it while the boys took the spotlight. The only questions she was ever asked were about possibly love triangles, which she took particular joy in denying all knowledge of.

As a parting question, Rita Skeeter stood up, having been silent for the rest of the interview, which had almost had Harry believing that he could get away without having to hear her annoyingly simpering voice.

"Master Malfoy," she said, smilingly sweetly, "Would you possibly be able to tell us about the former … _flair_ you had with Miss Justine Snape?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Draco said shortly.

"But, Master Malfoy, she has already confirmed-"

"She wouldn't comment, but there was, perhaps, a suggestion," Lee interrupted.

Rita glared at him, "As I said, Miss Snape has already suggested, in not denying the fact, that was a former relationship between the two of you."

"Well then, I suppose Miss Snape must have been referring to a dream," Draco said and turned his back on the press in disgust. He refused to turn around until Harry tugged him over to get photos taken in front of the Hogwarts crest. Even this was only done on the assurance that Rita would not be involved in any way. Kingsley Shacklebolt asked her to vacate the tent, which she did with an annoying, 'I'm up to no good' look on her face.

* * *

Justine left the tent in a hurry, not caring where she went. She finally settled on the stands, which were steadily filling with people. Taking a seat on the topmost rail she tried in vain to emerge herself in the Hunt, to get some focus.

Looking out over the forest she saw some of the teachers wearing orange iridescent jackets heading in to play security for the hunt. Justine smiled, the girls in the hunt were heavily armed, she could see why they had bloody security.

"Hey stranger, you look melancholy."

Justine head whipped around to see Mark sitting casually five foot away munching on some crackers. He was wearing the formal wear that was expected at these events. "OH MY GOD!" she yelled and threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his waist and trying hard not to cry. "I've had the worst morning, and I'm about to compete and I'm so glad to see you."

He brushed a hair back and secured it under her hair tie that was holding her hair high on the back of her head. "Look at me, I was told what went down. Rita Skeeter is a piece of work, when I made my first movie she was a bitch to me at this junket and I've never forgiven her, she wrote that Harry Potter article about you-know-who. You are worth fifteen times that chick, it wasn't all your fault."

"Really?" Justine asked.

"Really. Now come on, I've got to get you down to the stable, Jacque wants to put a thing in your ear and Tegan's stressing out that your not going to ride."

Justine grinned. "Like they could stop me."

"That's my girl."

* * *

At nine twenty Tegan sat in Loki's saddle giving her horse a last minute run down on how much trouble she was in if she so much as put a _hoof_ out of line. "And lastly. If you have even an inclination of not crossing the ruddy finish line, _you're_ finished. I'm not kidding."

Loki gave the most remorseful look she was capable of and whinnied.

"Don't beg with me, you'll get no-where." Tegan said and turned when she felt Anubis's heavy footfall approaching.

"Oh thank god…" she muttered seeing Justine laughing along with Alyson. Her poor cousin didn't deal with Negative emotion, in fact it was the worst thing for her.

"Hola sexy," she drawled in a fake Spanish accent, "We are reporting for duty."

"I could say the same boss." Tegan quipped, grinning back.

"Dumbledore just gave the mighty, "Don't cheat!" speech over in the stables, you missed it, and I think he's currently addressing the public. Champagne isn't being served until noon with the lunch, but they can watch all of the initial action on the big screens." Justine adjusted her jacket and pulled Anubis around, "We'll meet you over at the Kallaix tent, I want to say goodbye to everyone, and we have to put on our mini-mikes."

Alyson cringed. "Has she heated up the little silicone thing? Last time it was like cold play dough being put in my ear."

Justine giggled, "You come up with the weirdest things, play dough my ass!" She kicked Anubis into a quick trot.

Tegan and Alyson quickly matched her pace and they all dismounted at the tent and let Jacque fit them out with their communicators. They also had magic tabs attached to the undersides of their collars so they could be located on radar.

* * *

It took Jacque all of five minutes to run checks on all her equipment and make sure that her equipment covered all the participating teams, so that she would be able to find any of the other teams, and to make sure that all the headsets were working properly. 

The three riders mounted and bid farewell to their friends, who wished them the best of luck, and assured them that they'd be watching in the stands with Mark.

When they arrived at the starting line, they had to pull in beside the Hogwarts students. Justine smiled at Ginny, sneered at Daphne, and peered with interest at the third member of their party, a blond girl with blue eyes and a slightly absent expression.

"This is Pansy's … replacement, shall we say. Harry kicked her off the Hunt team for cheating," Ginny said.

"Shut up Weasley," Daphne said as Dumbledore came over to explain to them how to find their first area. Though the Kallaix students couldn't actually _hear_ what Dumbledore was saying, they guessed this, as Madam Maxime had come over to them to show them the same information.

Dumbledore reeled off the usual set of rules, which the Kallaix students were _more_ than familiar with, having participated in so many Hunting events in the past.

"Like anyone wouldn't realise that shooting at other teams was against the rules," Tegan muttered irritably. She just wanted to get started, _dammit_.

Dumbledore smiled slightly, apparently having overheard the comment, and raised his wand. A light rose into the air and began to pulsate, then, all of a sudden it exploded. Twenty-four horses galloped for the woods, each heading for its designated first area.

As soon as the Kallaix team had cleared the tree line Jacque's voice came over the intercom. "_Hey all, this is the sound check, repeat."_

Justine smiled "This is the sound check that Jacque insists on even though she knows her damn equipment is perfect."

Alyson giggled, "Repeat, Perfect."

Tegan shook her head. "What they said."

"_Well I was just checking, You're drifting kind of east, correct your heading about five degrees west and it will bring you into to bottom corner of your first zone."_

Justine touched her instep lightly to Anubis's side and he pulled slightly into the new course, and when he was in place, Justine lifted her foot back off. "Two hundred meters people, let's get ready, I want sweeping pattern Omega…"

Alyson and Tegan swapped sides and switched to free-reign, where the rider loops the reigns and tucks them loosely under her legs, freeing her arms and making her able to use her bow and arrow. Justine had switched just past the tree line and now held her armed bow.

"Jacque, a little music if you will," Justine said as she saw the boundary approaching.

Through their headsets music filled their ears, quiet enough to not be heard by the foxes.

They burst through the boundary, Alyson sweeping left and firing at the foxes who scattered, Tegan right, Justine chasing them straight down the middle. They held the record in Australia for clearing an area by using the Omega pattern, Alyson moved faster than the others, making the foxes think they can slip in behind her and get out of Justine's way, but they didn't realise that Alyson had turned around and was firing from a backwards position on her horse.

With this method they could do one area in only four passes.

Tegan was ruthless and Justine was a dead shot, and the team reached the other boundary in only about fifteen minutes, swinging alongside the boundary and doing the same pattern back down the course similarly, Alyson having had swapped sides.

They cleared the area in an hour. Justine and Alyson were trotting along side one another, they were confidant they had cleaned up this area, they were just investigating one last spot that Tegan sensed. Tegan had scouted a little ahead. "What's the time?" Alyson asked Justine looking perplexed.

"A few minutes to eleven, why?" Justine asked, knowing Alyson didn't ask questions unless she had bloody good reason.

"Well, we haven't encountered a single obstacle, we should have by now."

Alyson had a good point. "You spoke too soon!" said Tegan as she cantered up to the group pointing at the sky.

Justine looked up towards the sky. Dark storm clouds were forming out of thin air. "Jacque?" she asked.

"_Your weather conditions are about to change as a challenge, expect rain, hail, even a thunder storm_."

Justine grimaced, "Thanks, I'll call if we need you, or if we get bogged."

"Which is highly likely!" Alyson and Tegan said in unison. "Look at our track record!"

Jacque laughed, "_I'll valiantly bring the winch to get you out_."

"Of course you will. We'll be the one's bitching about how crazy people pay for bloody mud."

The heavens opened and the rain poured down on them. "Great." Justine said as she raised a hand to block the rain while she reached around behind her for her water-repelling cloak. Seeing Alyson and Tegan cast quick charms to do the same.

Swinging the black velvety material around her shoulders, she pulled Anubis around to face Alyson and Tegan. "Let's keep going, I think we're done with this area."

"I can feel a concentration of magic over this way; I think we'll find a fox den. This storm is starting to mess with my senses." Tegan said

"Well, the forest is denser over there, it's probably a good thing." Alyson said, looking on the bright side, flipping up her hood.

Justine nodded. "Jacque, we're heading east."

"_Be careful, you're still not near any other team, but I don't like that we're in the zone next to Hogwarts_."

"Any other schools close?"

"_Not really, Thundreds are about a kilometre to the north east_."

"I'd rather them than the Hogwarts skanks." Tegan growled.

Thunder rippled through the sky as they moved into deeper forest. Suddenly Justine spotted a white flash and adjusted herself to be riding free-reign and strung an arrow. She lifted the bow and shot into the trees and was rewarded by the pinging sound of a magical fox being shot. She laughed delightedly and watched as the others did the same, a rush of foxes coming at them from the trees, all scattering, but eventually being gotten by the trio. When the rush had finished, Justine glanced down at her watch, 11:30 and the weather wasn't giving up.

"I think we've got this area down, but the closest area, and by rights the one we have to move into next is the bloody Hogwarts area." Tegan said

"I don't like it at all." Alyson said.

Justine touched her mike. "Jacque, first area cleared, but we need to know where Hogwarts are in area F currently, because that's where we're bound.

"_They're on the far boarder, and they're not moving, I think they took cover from some hail, wimps… how do they expect to get points?"_

"So we can move into the area without confrontation?" Alyson asked.

"_I can't be sure, they've only done the middle. Sloppy work really."_

"We're going in. Cover our backs," Justine said as she nudged Anubis over the magical boundary, bow armed and on hand.

* * *

They had been working like Trojans to get this area cleared before they had a run in with the Hogwarts riders.

It had just gone noon and Justine was sure they had almost cleared this area. "Guys, we only have one more concentration on the 'Tegan Radar' to check out"

"_Keep an eye out for Christ's sake; Hogwarts are just over the northern border."_

Justine looked at Alyson and Tegan and they all smiled malevolently. "Let them come." Justine said clearly.

The three moved towards the border and slowly hunted out every den of foxes. Not being the smartest of species, magical foxes, they all moved for group cover from the rain. Justine grinned as she took out two with one blow and they 'pinged'.

"This gives the saying 'pop goes the weasel' a whole new bloody meaning." She said.

Alyson and Tegan laughed merrily and began to sine the song with fervour.

Justine lightly touched her head-set. "Jacque area two clear. We're going to three."

"_You guys are kickin it; I'm going to boppier music for some added motivation!" _Jacques voice said through the three headsets. So far they had been listening to just a top forty type CD, but now the music, when it returned, was more punk rock type music.

Justine bopped her head and moved for the boundary. With a touch to her earpiece the music died to a whisper and she focused on her environs. They were in denser forest than the last area, with a lot of ground cover. From her high vantage point on Anubis, Justine could see that another school had passed this exact way, not to long ago, they had left clear tracks in the mossy ground.

"AGH!" Tegan suddenly let out.

Justine whipped around, Bow raised, to see Tegan wrapped in what looked like a massive spider web wrapped around Tegan's arm and bow. "Oh ew, what the hell is it?"

Justine walked over and cast a simple non stick spell, something Justine _had_ to have learned in her mothers kitchen. Tegan squawked and pulled the webbing off. "That's just nasty…"

"_Don't forget, you _are_ in the Acromantula part of the forest. Keep your bloody eyes open."_

"Is it just me, or is it starting to get darker?" Justine asked, looking around, half an hour later during one of the few lulls in foxes.

"Oh! I remember these! It's a simulated night time, remember how I made us spend hours training at night? I heard they did it in the second round of the semi-finals in Canada last year," Alyson said.

"What do you do, _read_ hunting magazines?" Justine demanded.

"Yeah," Alyson said, "You got a problem with that? I prepared us for this, didn't I?"

"Where exactly is Hogwarts?" Tegan asked, a short time later as true night descended.

"_Right next to you. Get the hell out of there_," Jacque replied.

"Get out? We haven't finished this section yet!" Justine said.

Suddenly a group of riders came out of the gloom beside them, and the Kallaix riders pulled in, grouping together and glaring warily at the approaching riders. Anubis was snorting and pawing the ground, coming out ahead of his two mares.

Electra beamed at them and waved cheerfully.

"Jacque, I think your equipment is going a little nuts," Tegan said bluntly. "It's just Electra."

"_No, that's Thundreds. Hogwarts are on the _other_ side,"_ Jacque drawled, pissed off, as she always was when anyone tried to diss her equipment.

The Kallaix group turned to see Daphne out ahead of Ginny and Luna, who she'd forced back, and who _weren't_ looking happy. "Hi," Daphne smirked, and raised her bow, "I told you to stay out of my way, freaks." She fired straight at Alyson.

"_NO!_" Tegan snarled, forcing Loki straight into Isis, and sending Alyson shying out of harms way. The arrow met flesh in the nasty silence that had overtaken, and Tegan staggered back, her face screwed up in pain.

* * *

Well, Princess has informed me that it is well and truly time for me to do the thanks so here we go:

Dark627: It's been H/Hr since the beginning ... if you read the Sorting Ceremony in Chapter One, they are dating.

Aytheria: Name spelt right, anything else you wanted? More Harry bits are coming... and yes, the Norwegian Ridgeback is Norbert. He rocks.

Queenie: Good to see a healthy hatred of Draco Malfoy!

BladeKnight: -goes hunting for you- you better review this chapter to, or you'll be in trouble! Ax IS teaching me how to use a sword!

Moonshadow: We'll get back and change the Quezacoaltals ASAP.

GoDDark: Good to see some people on Gaia! You go girl!


	12. Revelation

_This Chapter is posted by Princess - and I would like to dedicate this one to Fritz the cat - i met him at the cat shelter and loved him, and i'm so glad he found a good home. He makes a cameo in a few chapters, keep an eye open, if you spot him i'll give you a cookie! Please REVIEW!_

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* * *

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_Chapter Twelve: **Revelation**_

Alyson watched in terror as Tegan took the arrow destined for her heart into her own self, falling backwards and almost off her horse, if not for Loki's dancing backwards in an attempt to keep Tegan on in the saddle she would have ended up on the ground.

Like Alyson, Justine was holding her breath. Time was standing still. Tegan gasped in pain and tried to right herself, falling forward and grasping her left shoulder where the arrow had struck, and still stood.

"Daphne, what the hell have you done…" Alyson heard Ginny whisper, a look of terror on her face.

"She's going to _bloody regret_ it!" Justine suddenly yelled, Anubis rearing up and roaring at the sky.

"How can you be so cold as to hurt another?" Electra yelled, pulling her riders together.

"It was intended for the freak." Daphne spat, then turned her horse and thundered away. Ginny and Luna had no choice but to follow, flashing apologetic looks at the rest of the party.

Justine turned and held up one hand, erecting a shield around the Kallaix riders and their horses, then dismounted, seeing Alyson do the same. Anubis went straight to Isis who was pacing the barrier.

"_Justine, when you get a second tell me what's going on there!" _ Jacques concerned voice said in the girl's ears.

"Tegan has been shot in the shoulder by Daphne…" Alyson began to explain to Jacque.

Tegan was wincing and trying to steady her breathing. "Hun, I need you to help me get you down, swing your leg over." Justine said, but to her amazement it was Loki who helped the most, folding down and sitting on the ground, clearly wanting to help.

Justin gently used her powers to levitate Tegan to the ground. "I'm… loosing a lot of blood… need to get arrow out…" Tegan gasped.

"I'm on it. Can you move your arm at all?" Justine said as she inspected the wound.

"Yeah, but it hurts like hell."

"Okay, stop talking now, I'm going to get out the arrow, then we're going to seal the wound with a drop of freely given Unicorns blood okay?" Justine said looking at Alyson who immediately took of her scarf pin and pricked a finger.

"Anubis, hold her down." Justine said and Anubis placed on mighty hoof on Tegan's chest. "Remember she's a werewolf and bloody strong."

As Anubis held her down she swiftly pulled out the arrow. Tegan screamed and pulled forward, But Anubis pushed her back down with renewed force. Justine pulled open Tegan's shirt to show the wound to Alyson who used her own blood in its diluted Unicorn form to seal the wound.

Tegan lay back on the ground, her breathing heavy but slowly returning to normal. "She's so going _down_ there is just no other word for it."

Justine slipped of her waterproof cloak and put it in her bag. It wasn't raining anymore. She then helped Tegan do the same, as her muscles and such healed in her arm.

From outside the dome of light, Electra said, "Friend, I am glad to see you are well, but we must now move on in the hunt."

"Thank you Electra, I will see you at the finish?" Justine asked.

Electra smiled. "Of course friend," and rode off.

Justine turned to Tegan and let out a giggle. "Babe, you're a mess, there's just no other word for it!"

Tegan looked down at her blood soaked clothes and ripped jacket. "Dammit!" she said as she whipped out her wand and said, "_scourgify!_" the blood cleared itself, in a rush of blue bubbles, and then, "_Repairo!_" and watched the holes fix themselves. "Now, let's go win this bloody thing fast so I can get to the bitch." Tegan's eyes narrowed.

* * *

Ax posed for yet another photo. Damn sitting next to Mark Grey was bloody hard work. Tanya was nearby, talking to all the boys but him. In all the bedlam, she slid her eyes over him and returned his stare, then turned to re-join the laughter. 

"Tanya, give me some of that there dip," Saul said and gestured with a corn chip.

She smiled that annoying little smile of her and turned up her nose. "No, it's all mine!" she joked.

Saul looked at her in mock shock. "You're selfish."

Ax thought that exactly identified Tanya. She selfishly kept her body to herself. No man should get this involved with a woman like her. And he watched her through slitted eyes as she laughed and blushed and chided the teasing guys.

They were after her, he knew. They had no chance at all, she was too potent for them, and she was magical. Then… why was she laughing that way?

Ax strolled casually over, and positioned himself next to Tanya. He would protect her. She was not alone. He was there. He proceeded to give various males his deadly, narrow eyed _cut it out right now _looks.

They ignored him.

Ax sighed. He'd obviously never appeared the formidable threat to these guys that he thought he was.

She was the most irritating woman ever concocted! She was already one of his discards, 'Get over it Ax'.

* * *

They cleared that area with surprising speed in the dark, Justine thought it was probably due to Tegan's determination to find and kill Daphne. 

"Jacque, time?" Justine said unable to read her watch.

"_We're just going on one o'clock." _Jacques voice responded.

"Well I think I can safely say that we have area three clear, we're going to head down the map now into the area marked as 'd'."

Justine waited for the reply and was shocked when Saul's voice said "_Right my beautiful hunting ladies, I have you on screen and you can feel safe for I, Saul Thorpe-Townsend, am watching your back_."

Justine laughed and held one hand to her earpiece. "What the hell are you doing on Jacques mike?"

"_She had to go fetch something from the cruiser and eat some lunch_." Saul sounded full of himself and his own intelligence.

"Oh god, we're screwed!" Justine laughed.

Saul's disgruntled reply was "_You know, I get that a lot._"

The girls laughed and moved towards the next border. They passed through the shield of light and strung their bows, each casting a quick spell for infra red vision on their eyes and tucking their wands away in their saddle bags.

* * *

Draco tossed back another shot of sherry, he hated Mondays … wait, it was Tuesday. Well, he hated them too. Daphne was being a sore _loser_ and trying to make up for it by winning the Hunt … and then _attacking_ another person … why hadn't she fired at _her_? 

He and Harry were watching Kingsley Shacklebolt approaching with the Australian Minister of Magic, the father of the boy that his girlfriend had _cheated_ on him with, and Mark Hall, the most popular teenage boy in Wizarding History – in some ways, he even outshone _Harry Potter_, for Gods sake … and the cheating little bitch was apparently engaged to him while going on romantic dates with Kris. How very Justine.

There was going to be trouble, he could _sense_ it.

"There's going to be trouble," Harry, sitting beside him, remarked.

Kingsley came over to them, "Draco, as Head Boy of Hogwarts-" 

"I have a complaint to make about those actions of a member of the student populace of your … school," Gregory Crompton said, interrupting Kingsley and getting right in Draco's face.

"Sorry?" Draco said.

"A member of your school attacked one of _my_ ambassadors!" Gregory snarled at him, eyes blazing. "Alyson could have been _killed_! Tegan _would _have been seriously injured, also possibly killed, but for the action of _Australians_ … _not_ Hogwarts staff!"

"Ambassador?" Draco repeated.

Gregory turned to Kingsley; "I thought you told me this Draco person was _intelligent_, which was the only reason I allowed you to talk me into negotiations with him. I want this Greengrass taken off the course _right now._"

Draco clued in. "Is it really politically correct to refer to the Kallaix students as your 'Ambassadors'?" he demanded, stung that this man should think him unintelligent, and intent on proving him wrong.

Gregory rolled his eyes, "The Kallaix students are here in an official capacity as representatives of a different Nation, continent even. How dare you refer to them as anything _less_ than Ambassadors? They are far more than simple _tourists_."

"They are delegates from another school, not formal members of a Ministerial party," Draco insisted.

"I believe my son is," Gregory pointed out. "And if you want to get _smarmy_ you little shit I'll swear the other nine in _right now_."

Draco scowled and looked away. He knew when he was losing, but that didn't mean he had to admit it. "If she'd been seriously injured, I would have been forced to kill both you and your little bitch of a girlfriend Malfoy," Mark said coldly, glaring at Draco, saying his first words since arriving on the scene. No one present of course knew that Tegan was his baby sister.

Draco sneered under his breath while the minister discussed the issue again, "I doubt little Mr. Superstar would want to get his hands bloodied,"

"Let's look at your history – murderers, thieves, betrayers … summed up in a phrase, Death Eaters," Mark jeered back, "I supposed bloodied hands are in your nature – why can't they be in mine?"

"I've changed. I'm not my father," Draco said, beginning to turn away.

"Got a nice way of showing it," Mark replied, "I hear you're a bit of a woman basher yourself – like father like son, as the old saying goes."

Draco sneered, but couldn't come up with much of a response to that. He kept turning and walked away, leaving Harry to deal with the situation, and not really caring.

"Well, Mr Potter, I suppose I will have to deal with you instead," Gregory said to Harry, who sighed.

"I'm going to have words with Draco," Harry said, "Minister Crompton, I would be happy to deal with your complaint."

"Politeness," Gregory remarked, "I'd heard all about your so called 'British Manners' but this is pretty much the first opportunity I've had to see someone express them. Now, about your school-mates _sabotage_ of the event and the physical threat to the Australian Ambassadors … I want Greengrass _off the course_!"

"I'm afraid I can't do anything about getting Daphne off the course, but I've warned her about cheating before. You can rest assured I'll deal with the situation to the best of my ability, but if you want her off the course, you'll have to speak with the Judges of the event," Harry replied.

"Can you get her off the team?" Gregory demanded, "I don't want any of the other events being sabotaged by this … _female_!"

"I'll do my best, I can promise that if she tries anything else, she will be ejected from the Hogwarts team … but the first offence is as yet uncertain as to her involvement, and unless that is _proven_, then this is the first offence, which means I can't do much more than a warning … despite the severity."

"Second offence? You seem to be in control of the situation, so I leave it in your capable hands," Gregory said, "And the name's Greg." He turned and wandered off.

"That means _you, _and only _you_ deal with this," Mark added, to make sure there was no confusion, "Don't let Malfoy in on this. We don't trust him in Australia. Greg told you to call him Greg – you've earned his trust, don't go wasting it." With that, the superstar followed his Minister away.

Kingsley looked at Harry in amazement, "Every time our Ministry comes up against their's, that man manages to completely _decimate_ the delegates sent to deal with him, storms into our Ministry headquarters and sets the whole place on its ear yelling for services, complaining about responses, making us look like amateurs … and you get to call him _Greg_. I believe he once nearly bit someone's head off for referring to him as 'Gregory' without any titles – he said she was being condescending … then again, it was Rita Skeeter, so who can tell?"

Harry smiled, "Well, don't I feel special. If you're not careful, my head might swell."

Kingsley grinned back at him, and wandered back to the tent where the Ministers of Magic were gathered. Harry turned to look for Draco and nearly fell over laughing, Narcissa had her son backed into a corner and was evidently giving him hell. Harry had been on the receiving of this before – she was scary. Remus was hovering behind Narcissa, probably trying to get her to calm down. Deciding that he valued his continued well-being, Harry left mother and son to it and went to stand with Leon, who'd been momentarily abandoned by Tanya, who was talking to Ax and Saul over by the Kallaix tent.

* * *

Draco was flinching away from Narcissa. "The longer you don't tell me what that god-dammed comment meant, the longer I'm going to keep you in this god-dammed corner yelling!" she told him in no uncertain terms. 

"Narcissa, dear, is this really necessary?" Remus asked, hovering on the side of the argument.

"Remus, _shut up_, it is necessary!" Narcissa replied, and Remus backed out of the situation, giving Draco a sympathetic but helpless look.

Narcissa looked her son dead in the eyes, blue clashing with silver. "_What_ did it mean?"

"What did _what_ mean?" Draco demanded.

"_He_ said you were a, and I quote, 'bit of a woman basher yourself'," Narcissa hissed, glaring at her son.

"That was the Australian's being bitchy about their wonder-girl _cheating_ on me!"

Narcissa looked a little put out by this, "It would seem I've misjudged you," she remarked, "I know what _she_ did to you, I did not occur to me to think that would be what he was speaking of." She reached out and hugged him gently, like a mother should. Draco relaxed in her embrace, thinking just how much he'd missed out on as a child, without this parental love, because his father had forbade it, saying it made Draco 'soft'.

* * *

Justine sat in her saddle and let Anubis walk her past the glow of the Foxes she had just popped. She was content they would finish this area soon, they had thrown one of the oldest tricks in the book at her, a sudden rush of foxes, designed to put the reader off the target and disable their senses long enough that by the time they got them back, the foxes were gone. The girls had been aware and had kicked ass. 

Alyson was in the lead, watching to make sure another rush didn't occur, the judges might think that two rushes may put the riders off.

Tegan was happily plotting to herself the demise of Pansy and Daphne, Justine figured she was talking to Saul, but she had turned her headset off, and removed the infrared spell.

She turned her head up to the sky. The stars were so different. Her favourite place at Kallaix was the glade just beyond the Wentworth house. At day, it was like one of those paintings you only see in galleries, and by night… It was a world of sparkles and magic, the stars so big and beautiful that the skies seemed to grow when you looked at them.

Here they were all in the wrong places, but beautiful too, here in a different way, they seemed… closer, like you could reach out to touch them.

A noise to her left caught her attention, and Tegan's. Both girls turned and aimed their bows, Tegan touching her headpiece to shut Saul up.

Both girls moved towards the sound, Justine raising two hands above her left era and waving them left, meaning that was the direction Tegan was to take. She nodded and moved around. Anubis stepped surprisingly lightly as he entered the thicket. Justine saw movement close to the ground and slightly to the left and shot. She was shocked when she heard not a pinging noise but a mechanical zing and smash.

Justine moved over and lifted the branch that hid the sound with the edge of her bow. Inside was a camera. "Saul, do you know if Jacque bugged this part of the forest?" Tegan asked from somewhere behind.

Justine raised her hand and switched on her mike. _"… Doesn't know what your talking about, can you send her a visual_…"

Justine's eyes lit up and she rummaged through her coat pockets. She raised her mobile and took a picture at the mangled equipment and sent it to Jacque via a message. The screen lit up and was on flame for a second before the message popped up, '_Floo text sent._'

"_Good lord, this looks like just a normal camera… but it has the adamant casing to make it magic compatible… they stole my technology! I'm gonna need a sec to figure this out…" _Jacque was back.

Justine whipped her head around and shot a fox so suddenly it almost scared Tegan. "We're on another den right now, I'll talk in a minute." Justine said and gestured for Alyson to regroup where she was. The headpieces came back to life with music and she led the team into the forest. To her left she suddenly saw a fox and Alyson got it, and Tegan was aiming at a new one. "Pattern Beta! Tegan flanks!"

Justine turned to Alyson and both girls fell into a canter next to each other and sped up, allowing Tegan to turn completely around in her saddle and shoot backwards, directing Loki to follow Anubis.

Justine quickly picked up the rhythm of shooting off one side of the group, allowing her friends to do the same. Her hunting quiver having to refill itself many times, she eventually saw the boundary approaching and called the group together and pulled them neatly around to repeat the pattern back across the field.

By quarter to two they had cleared the area, and they were happy to see that it was almost daylight again. Justine looked down at her watch and saw the time and called the group together.

"We have forty-five minutes and are on the border of a smallish area, in comparison. I want double time; I want five areas to our name. Were going with Alpha."

Tegan and Alyson looked at each other and grinned.

"Alpha," they said in unison.

"Jacque, we need the alpha music if you will…"

"_Oh baby. Do it for the glory!" _ Justine could almost see Jacque grinning as her earphones were filled with a loud Punk baseline… Rasmus first, Justine loved them.

Justine closed her eyes for a minute and let the music fill her senses. She was bobbing her head in rhythm, and suddenly she shot off the mark screaming "HYAH", forcing Anubis into a canter. The three broke the boundaries of the area with a mighty roar from Anubis and spread out, having had entered at one of the corners, making enough noise to force the foxes to move. Justine drove down the middle, weaving back and forth until she saw Alyson or Tegan.

Within half an hour, Alyson and Tegan were getting closer and closer to her. Hoobastank was playing. She stopped moving and held up a hand, armed her bow and yelled, "SHOOT AT WILL!"

Justine began stringing and shooting her bow at top speed, Taking out any fox stupid enough to try and push their way back out of the corner. She slowly felt Anubis move forward, as he was used to this. When they were so far into the corner that the three horses were side by side, Tegan took out the last fox.

"YEEEA HAAAW" Tegan yelled as she turned to Justine.

"Damn I love the alpha move!" Justine yelled

"Oh yeah baby! We so cleared area five Jacque!" Alyson said into her mini-mike.

"Why' pretty ladies, ah' do believe that's a wrap!" Justine said in an exaggerated drawl. "We should have for ourselves five minutes to move into the middle of this here pretty course to make a dramatic exit…" She draped herself backwards over Anubis in a mock pose.

The girls shrunk their equipment and stuck it in their bags.

* * *

At 2:45 a gong resounded through the stadium and down through the forest. Ax knew that it signified the end of the hunt, and that all riders had five minutes to return to the start point or have their points void. Kris turned and watched the tree line anxiously, if anything had gone wrong, that was his girl Tegan, his little sister Ally and his bunny out there. 

Beside him Ax was doing the same, although he also had his attention drawn to where the wench Tanya was.

Two full minutes passed, Jacque was tracking them on the computer, and reassured they would be on time. Saul, Tanya and Adam had gone to get the Aussie huntresses some refreshments from the mess tent, but returned anxiously.

Jeffery was standing in the shade of the tent with Kris and Ax. He saw Jacques eyes light up, "Here they come!" He said happily.

Then they came into view. Moving at a full gallop, although they had time, Justine taking point with the other two next to her, although slightly behind. Anubis shone in the sunlight, Isis looked feminine and beautiful, Loki pretty and strong.

Justine looked across the stands for the Australians as she went zooming through the stadium, and blindly spotted Kris and the group cheering. She grinned and lifted her crop in the air. The fake, cut glass emerald on its head shone in the light.

She then turned and roared across the finish line. She slowly brang Anubis down from his spirited gallop, and turned to see Loki, right in front of the finish line, refusing to cross. Tegan was on it though, and she swung off the horse and cropped it on the ass, forcing the stubborn horse across line as she vaulted onto Loki from behind, screaming blue bloody murder.

"You stupid bloody horse, you just _had_ to do it bloody again didn't you? That's it! Justine can deal with you." Tegan again dismounted and let Loki be lead away by Tanya, who had tactfully noticed that unless Tegan and Loki were separated it was going to get messy.

Justine ran over and wrapped her arms around Kris, who wrinkled his nose and giggled. "How is it that you don't smell like Anubis? What is that Chanel?"

"Simple charms my dear Kristopher, Simple charms."

"Hey Alyson! You were so amazing!" Ax yelled delightedly as he swung his 'little sister' up into his arms, "Especially when you guys took out that camera that some media guy had put in the trees to get action close ups, man did he get told by Dumbledore!"

"And so he should, that thing almost cost us an area, it could have broken our concentration, and someone could have gotten hurt!"

Ax tweaked her nose, "When I got close enough to Dumbledore and Greg to hear what was being said, that was it."

Adam stood by Tegan who had an intent look upon her face as she looked over to where the Hogwarts riders were dismounting. Justine saw the look in her eyes; it was going to be all out war when the confrontation came.

"_May all Huntresses please make their way to the medical tent to be assessed? This is not optional." _Again a voice washed across the arena.

"That means the judges are making their decisions," Justine said to the group. "Tegan I want that shoulder checked out by a medi-wizard right now." She pointed at the tent with a finger and followed the group in that direction.

As was the norm, they had to split up at the tent, the boys not being allowed in, and Tanya having to join them, as she didn't compete. "See you guys at the tent in five ok?" She said as she walked off with Saul.

Inside the tent, medics in lime green were leading girls into cubicles in pairs, and Justine allowed Tegan to go ahead with Alyson. The medic said there names into his clipboard and took a quick look at their files, which had appeared with a sparkly blue puff. He looked down at the board and up at the two girls about ten times in rapid succession. Obviously a unicorn and werewolf wasn't what he expected. His eyes widened to saucer-sized orbs, then returned to normal. "If you ladies will accompany me, this way, I'll just make sure you're ok."

Justine shook her head and rotated her shoulders. She knew she was fine, but could do with a quick rub on the shoulders. She waited in line and when the next medic was available, followed her into the tent.

* * *

Five minutes later, back at the Kallaix Tent, Justine was sitting in front of Jacque's computer checking out the Hunt stats, and debriefing Tegan and Alyson while the others watched on. 

The horses were tethered just outside of the Tent, in the shade of the trees, Tegan's attempt to forbid Loki any refreshments refuted by Alyson, who snuck them to the disgraced horse.

Every now and again, an avid Hunt fan, or a gutsy Australian Media Personality would come over for their two minutes of the group's time. Kris and Ax dealt with most of them.

"Right. I'm particularly happy with our Alpha time, and the way we worked with the night-time. I think our weakness was in the way we slacked off when we thought they got predictable. We need more focus next time." She looked around seriously.

"I GOT IT! Take along a tube of liquid candy!" Saul said with a flourish.

Justine rolled her eyes, but Tegan cottoned on to what he meant. "Sugar rush. When we're loosing energy, it would be an instant high." Tegan said. "We're not allowed potions or performance enhancing charms, but there's no rules against Saul's two food groups, Candy and Chocolate!"

"And we could win, on a serious sugar buzz!" Alyson joined in.

Saul looked wise and said. "I have taught them well…"

"And I," said Marks voice, particularly pompously from nowhere as he joined the group, wrapping himself around Tegan and Justine from behind.

The group giggled and moved around to the front of the tent to where a few seats were erected for them to sit in while the Judges did their debrief. Justine, Alyson and Tegan sat in the middle of the group and once Greg came to join them, and Jeffery pulled Jacque into his lap, the group was ready.

"Hey shorty, you did good." Greg said to Justine who smiled and blew him kisses.

* * *

Ginny and Luna had Daphne backed into a corner of the stable, after Daphne had been trying to get one of them to look after her horse for her. "You _lost_ us the event!" Ginny spat at Daphne, "Normally, I wouldn't mind losing, but to lose because you attacked someone for no good reason? You gave her a mortal wound, you're so lucky she survived that!" 

"It really wasn't the nicest thing to do," Luna said vaguely, "She might have been seriously hurt you know. It was bad enough the Thestrals were closing in on Tegan's blood – they were ready for a feast, and I don't know if werewolf blood would have been good for them."

"You don't know if werewolf blood would have been good for the ghostly horses that bring bad luck?" Daphne and Ginny yelped as one.

"You wouldn't want them getting sick, now would you?" Luna replied. With that, she turned and almost floated from the stables.

Suddenly a shadow appeared on the ground before the door, and both of them turned around to see the entire Thundreds school group gathered, with Electra in the lead, scowling murderously at Daphne. Alone, Electra walked into the stables, pushing Ginny politely out of her way and taking the formers place in front of Daphne.

"Greengrass, you have … no honour," she sounded as if the words were alien to her, "Now that I have competed against you, I can say that you truly do not deserve what little name you have in Hunting records. I am asking our Minister if he can appeal for your removal from the team, if not from this event."

Daphne stared at her, but Electra continued before Daphne had a chance to respond, "I have heard that the Australian Minister is taking similar action, and I can assure that I will speaking to other like-minded students about going to their own Ministers to speak about this. I will also be urging that everyone possible to speak with your Headmaster, and Head Students, about possible actions to prevent such behaviour in any place from you in future.

"I have no hesitation in telling you, Greengrass, you are not half the woman your mother was, on a horse or in the flesh. My entire team believes that you way you speak about the Australian team is not only unfounded, but entirely self-descriptive," suddenly Electra turned to Ginny, "Ginevra Weasley, is it not?"

"Yes," Ginny replied, holding out a hand to shake. Electra shook, then turned Ginny's hand over to look at the palm.

"_You_ have honour, and will be graced with long life … but there is something more, something I have never seen before," then she giggled suddenly, "Who would have thought … him?"

Ginny blushed, and took her hand back, looking over her palm in evident confusion. Electra laughed, "I'll show you how to see sometime," she said, taking Ginny's hand again and leading her from the stable.

* * *

Albus Dumbledore stood up to address the crowds, "Ladies and Gentlemen, esteemed guests and students, thank you for attending the fortieth advent of the United Youth Conference Unicorn Hunt!" he paused for cheering, which came with enthusiasm from everyone. "I must begin by saying how proud I am to be the Headmaster of Hogwarts in this time! The students have, for the most part, behaved admirably, in both the events and in accommodating the new arrivals with a minimum amount of fuss. I hope you have all enjoyed the first _public_ event as much as I have. Without further ado, I will give you the results for the Fox Hunt, the second of the three Hunt events, the others, of course, being the Time Trial and the Cross Country. I call fellow Judge and Headmistress, Madame Olympe Maxime to present the results for the Dressage!" 

A massive woman in black silk came to the magical microphone, wearing a monstrosity of black feathers on her head. "In the Dressage," she began, "Third came Thundreds, with rider Electra Williams. Second was Hogwarts, with rider Daphne Greengrass, and in first place, Kallaix Academy with Alyson Deveréaux." As their names were called, the three girls came up to receive their ribbons, Daphne and Alyson glaring daggers at one another.

"Well, it seems we have some healthy rivalry on the field," Dumbledore remarked jovially, taking over again. "And I now give you Emmaline Greengrass to present the first, second and third awards for the Hunt itself!"

A woman with a slightly sour expression on her pretty face, and who looked entirely too like her daughter, took the stage. "To begin, scores were decided by both the amount of areas you cleared, and the amount of foxes you gained in each area. In third place, Thundreds, who cleared four areas under the leadership of Electra Williams," the Thundreds team went up to receive a bronze medal in the image of a rearing horse with a bow on the ground at it's feet, and a small fox.

"In second place, Hogwarts, who cleared five areas but were penalised one for misadventure, led by Daphne Greengrass," again, the team came up, this time to receive a silver medal. "In first place, Kallaix Academy, who cleared five areas, and had the highest fox count recorded in the past few years."

Justine led her team up onto the podium amongst the cheers and yelling erupting from the eastern side of the Arena. Looking around grinning she discovered that was because the schools that were there with their families and countrymen were Thundreds, Villefort, Grendwell and Kallaix.

On the other side of the arena, Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and Nhi-Lon Fohs were rather reserved in their clapping, not so much as anyone would notice, but she was happy to see that the Durmstrang students were clapping jovially. Justine didn't know whether they liked her team or were just happy to see someone beating Hogwarts who had beaten them in the Tri-wizard tournament.

Up on stage Tegan grabbed the shiny golden trophy and held it above her head. Alyson took two of the ribbons and traditional bouquet of roses and held them up too. Justine smiled and waved, letting a ribbon be pinned to the front of her jacket.

Kris and Saul were standing on chairs by now and when Kris yelled, "Who's your daddy," it was faintly heard around the arena. The entire east side yelled back "SAULS YOUR DADDY!"

Justine shook her head and hugged Severus who had just joined her on stage. "I think we're a bad influence," She said to him as Kris jumped down and began sprinting to where they stood. He swung her up to sit on his shoulders and carried her down the stairs towards the Kallaix cruiser.

When all of the other Kallaix Students had left, and long after the crowds had disappeared Severus Snape stood there. Thinking. "No," he said shaking his head. "I think you're a good influence Justine, you and your friends…" Then he smiled his newfound smile and began to walk towards his office to prepare his long unused dress robes to wear tonight.

* * *

Daphne walked towards the DA tower, she had just said farewell to her mother, who had not shut up about that annoying bitch Justine, with her precious horse and her lardy da skills. It wasn't fair. She had worked her entire life to be the best huntress to keep her mothers attention. She had also gotten a dressing down from Dumbledore who informed her she had been penalised an area's points for her treatment of Tegan. She guessed it could have been worse. 

She sensed someone behind her and turned to see Tegan, her eyes dangerously flashing, stalking her down the hall. It just got worse, the blood, which Tegan had magically removed before was back. She turned and walked faster, hoping Tegan would go away. She kept coming. Daphne broke out in a run and turned to see Tegan break out in a flat sprint straight at her, eyes focused on Daphne.

Daphne realised, I'm being hunted, she's a freaking werewolf, and she's hunting me! Daphne screamed and ran as fast as she could.

Tegan crash tackled the bitch from behind. She was going to make her hurt dammit, like that arrow had. It had nearly killed Alyson. Pain was a coming.

She flipped Daphne over and raised her hand to punch her in the face and her fist was caught from behind.

Justine was there, looking at her with eyes of fire. "I saw you leave the boat. She's not worth your anger. Get up and walk away." She said in a dangerous tone, eyes flickering lightning.

Tegan was, for lack of a better word, shocked with herself once she had clamed down. She got up, shook her head and followed Justine back around the corner, where Adam stood. He smiled at her and gave her a nookie. "C'mon missy, let's go get some sun." he said affectionately.

* * *

The group's good mood from winning the hunt hadn't lifted. At four forty five, Justine sat on the end of 'Boby 2' leaning back on Saul's bent legs. "We are so too good for our own good," she said cockily. 

Ax grinned at her from another deckchair where he and Alyson were looking at the newspaper. "Watch out, your starting to sound as egotistical as me," he said with a raised eyebrow.

"Nah, she has a more feminine voice, sounds nothing like you at all," Kris quipped from his spot floating on an inflatable mat in the pool.

Ax grinned, "You delight in annoying me don't you?"

Lazily from the top deck where he and Tegan were sunbaking Adam called, "He delight's in finally getting one up on the king of the smarmy."

Ax opened his moth in mock horror, "Smarmy… moi?"

Jacque laughed. "If you boys are quite done sizing each other up, we need to get ready, we have a live interview in… fifteen minutes… with Julia for the morning news. Now I need to get up to the castle to set some cameras amongst the brickwork, and a few in the entrance hall, for the Hunt feast and the Moonlight ball. When they want you, a mist will appear over the pool, and then clear to become flat like a screen. Julia will appear, and it'll be like watching and talking to TV." She grinned and jumped of the side of the boat onto the pier with Jeffery.

Ax, who had gone downstairs for something, popped back up through the wheelhouse holding his and Kris's guitars. "Let's play some tunes while we wait."

Kris nodded and levitated himself back to the edge of the pool, still miraculously dry. They sat down and began to pluck some pretty Latin music, to which Justine began to sing softly and sweetly. It was obvious she was making it up as she went along, but she knew a little Spanish, phrases like 'where's the toilet' and 'how do you do' so she sounded authentic. If a little strange to those who understood it.

Kris suddenly grinned when he saw Tanya come up on deck with a flat mat; about two meters square, and lay it out. She waved her wand and said "_Erresius_" stepping back as a white and silver drum kit suddenly inflated from the surface. She sat down and Kris and Ax looked to her to start the next song. Saul, who had a surprising baritone, sat up to join Justine in the singing.

Tanya suddenly giggled and began to drum a tribal sort of rhythm. Her being in Petersen was explained when she played music her entire demeanour changed. Tanya could play most any instrument well. At Kallaix one of the new elective subjects was Sorcery. A form of Magic where the person uses their body and music to create spells and illusion. Every student squabbled about who got to take the class, it being the most popular new subject, second computer studies.

All the prefects had gotten into the class; it was, to be sure, unfair that as prefects they had all gotten first choice at the courses available.

Ax picked upon the drum rhythm and turned it into the only song he could think of, Kris following him in, both playing with gusto. Justine and Saul working well with one another, she picked up a natural harmony to his voice.

_When superstars and cannonballs are running through your head  
A television freak show cops and robbers everywhere  
Subway makes me nervous, people pushing me too far  
I've got to break away  
So take my hand now_

_'Cause I want to live like animals  
Careless and free like animals  
I want to live  
I want to run through the jungle   
The wind in my hair and the sand at my feet …  
_

Clapping and cheering came from the direction of the pool. Justine turned and screamed "Hey mum!"

Julia sat on the screen wearing a snappy pinstripe suit. "Hey baby! Hey everyone, we go live in two minutes, but lets go in with some more of that music huh?"

Everyone nodded and moved to where Julia and the staging director moved them, Justine and Saul just how they were, off to one side on the deckchair, but with Justine sitting more snuggled in. Kris and Ax sat slightly to one side in front of Tanya who was in the middle. Alyson, Adam and Tegan sat on chairs just in behind Saul and Justine.

"Okay. We're live in five… four…"

Tanya again started playing and the music started up again.

_Wonder if you can pick up my  
Accent on the phone  
When I call across the country  
When I call across the world  
I can see you in my kitchen  
I can picture you now  
As you toast to your small town  
When you drink the happy hour_

_  
I'm in London still  
I'm in London still  
I'm in London still_

"I'm proud to say that now we're crossing live to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where Australia is currently competing in the United Youth Conference. We're chatting to Justine Snape and Kristopher Crompton and the student prefects. Hey guys."

Justine rolled her eyes and said "Hey mum!"

"So how's Britain treating you this morning?"

"Well, it's, like five in the afternoon, but the morning was great!" Kris said jovially.

"So, I have it on good confidences that not two hours ago you won the main portion of the Hunt." Julia said mischievously. On cue Alyson and Tegan held up the cup.

"Mum, we totally nailed it, and we're in the finals for the Quidditch!" Justine said happily.

"And we've barely been in trouble!" Saul said, bringing in waves of laughter. "Yeah, seriously but, this is the most amazing experience. We've come over here to where the best of the best of eight of the largest schools in the western magi-sphere have gathered and we have the opportunity to compete against them and confer with them. It's an amazing experience."

"What's it been like with all of the different cultures?" Julia asked.

Justine thought for a second and answered, "We've been so rushed that I can't really say I've noticed anything dramatically different. Um, there's been some weird foods popping up at dinner, but on the whole I think the different cultures have been a positive thing for the event. I've had a lot of time with the Thundreds, Grendwell and Villefort teams. And the Durmstrang Team's ship is on the pier next to ours…"

Julia's expressive hands moved as she conducted the interview, bringing each student into the conversation, "So… we have like two minutes left, so I want to know what's your favourite thing so far, we'll go around the group."

Tegan started and she thought for a second then grinned…"The food!"

Alyson laughed and said, "All the different opinions and cultures," she nodded and looked over to Adam, who immediately grinned and quipped, "New challenges in the Quidditch pitch!"

Julia laughed, "Our little Quidditch star! Have you chosen which team to sign with next year?"

Adam laughed and shook his head. "I don't know who I'm going to sign with, but when I do, you'll be the first to know Julia."

"Ok, I'm holding you to that. Ax?"

Ax grinned. "The uh, company?" he said with a pretend bashful glance.

Everyone laughed. Kris said he favoured the "Competition and bringing the school glory."

Tanya smiled and said, "Seeing the rest of the world … and catching up with a friend I thought was a Muggle."

"Oh, so he's at Hogwarts?" Julia said.

"Hard to believe, but yeah. A guy who lives _next door_ turns out to be going to school in Britain," Tanya shrugged, and they moved on to Saul.

"Well, I was a little saddened by the lack of diversity in the Hogwarts library, and with that disappointment in mind, I'd have to say that my favourite thing so far has been the partying."

Finally Justine thought for a second and said, "Friendships. Old and new, there were some people who I've gotten to know again who I'd missed."

Everyone broke out in choruses of "Aww," while Saul tickled Justine.

Finally Julia had to go, after telling Justine on national television to behave herself and wishing the group well.

* * *

Justine lay on her bed and thought about the day. It was five thirty according to her silver bedside clock. She rolled and pushed her face deeper into the white satiny bedspread. She had an hour to get beautiful and face the world again. She was getting sick of this. Constantly on the defensive because of Daphne, Pansy and _him._ And now bloody Harry and Ron were angry with her. This was so unfair. 

She didn't want to go to this bloody feast.

She looked over at the boring dress she was supposed to wear. Everyone went in costume, and the whole school's team had to match, each the so-called traditional dress of their country. The Thundreds would get to wear groovy Egyptian gowns; the Beauxbatons would be in shimmering French gowns.

The Australians would be in the black, stoic, English dresses that were in fashion in the seventeen hundreds. It covered _everything._

She couldn't even accessorise this bloody thing.

The first settlers were a boring bunch weren't they? But were they the first people to Australia? A slow and devious smile spread over Justine's face. The first people to Australia were convicts. Thieves, murderers, hookers…

Justine whipped out her wand and flitted out of her room and into the lounge to see Alyson and Tegan in their room dissing their dresses. "I HAVE A PLAN!" she screeched and headed for the transfiguration section in the Library.

She re-emerged with a book, and skipped back to her dress. The index directed her to page forty-nine. She pointed her wand at her dress and chanted "_Forma Decorus_". The boring skirt spread, became satiny. A full circle of satin with tulle underskirts. The top a black corset with black satin ribbon holding it together at the back. She was going to have some _killer_ cleavage.

She went and stroked the satiny fabric. She was going to play the part of the… she smiled. She could just see the look on the face of Daphne and Pansy. They had _never_ seen hussy like they were going to see hussy tonight. Let Kallaix show they could outshine the shiniest.

She bolted for Tegan and Alyson. Repeating the chant she turned Tegan's dress royal blue velvet, a translucent long skirt in chiffon, covered by a cross-over dress which barely covered the essentials in the front before tying up at the back, the v-neck sitting way down near her belly button.

Alyson's dress went emerald green silk, a halter neck dress, also for killer cleavage, with a long round skirt, with splits to the thigh at regular intervals around the skirt.

The three girls raced for Tanya, busting through he door just as Tanya would have taken off her top to put the hideous creation on. Justine pointed her wand. Red. Scarlet red. Asymmetrical on the top, one long sleeve, one no sleeve. A long skirt with a split to the thigh on one side and a slight train. "Justine, you're getting too good at this." Alyson replied.

"And I'm a fast learner!" said Jacque's voice from behind them. She was wearing a purple silk turtle necked dress, straight falling and sleeveless with a split up the front to just show a hint of belly button, with matching loose form pants.

"Let's accessorise!" was Justine's reply.

She bounded back into her room to put on some makeup, letting her hair down before pinning up the front sections in a neat quiff and attacking it with curling charms. She then sprinkled some magic glitter through her hair, the sort that glittered and shone from its own light.

The last ouch was her grandmother's diamond necklace. She had inherited it and some other jewellery from Severus and her father's mother, primarily because she was the _only _heir. She also put on the matching earrings, which glittered in her ears.

Justine smiled at her reflecting. Screw playing the defensive. It was time for a little offence. Justine style.

* * *

Ax stood on the deck of the boat, waiting for the girls to make their grand appearance. He would be going with Tanya of course, as the Petersen prefects. 

Tanya came up on deck with the rest of the girls, and went to stand with … _Saul_? Why was she with him, surely they weren't going together. But they _were_!

And then Ax knew, just as fast. Saul was her fall guy. She wanted him, and she wanted him to see her with another man to make him territorial. Yep.

Knowing that he wasn't surprised when she didn't look around to find him. He sat there with the other guys and knew that she knew right where he was.

When had she gotten _that _dress? It was like a material representation of his wildest dreams! Good lord, she was wearing it to make him jealous wasn't she? She was good. Ax grinned to himself. She was lucky she was being escorted dressed like that. Hang on. _All the girls were dressed like that!_

Had he missed something? How come she'd paired off with Saul? Ax figured it all out. She was going with Saul so that when Saul started to goof off, Ax would have to come to her rescue. Yeah. She was. She knew where he was sitting. He relaxed and studied his drink.

"Well, I think we had better get our sweet asses up to the castle already!" Justine said with satisfaction.

Kris grinned and took his baby sister, Alyson, on his arm, at least her dress was decent. _UNTIL SHE MOVED! _"I think we're ready. Let's go." Kris said.

There was a chorus of agreement and the group began to move off towards the castle. Justine had taken Kris's other arm, and Tegan was chatting to Adam, who, Ax had seen, had asked her to go to the feast earlier. Jacque and Jeffery were somewhere up the front, doing their thing as usual.

He was left without a partner. Good lord.

He sped up and walked alongside Adam, so he wasn't alone. That just never happened. He saw Tanya and Saul were ahead of him. It seemed odd that she would allow that. She should have waited until he had disembarked until she did, then acted surprised to see him ahead of her when Saul started to misbehave.

She wasn't handling the situation all that well. But she was a novice, she'd learn.

He squeezed through the impossible barrier of Justine and Kris to take her arm and walk alongside Kris, Justine kept chatting, happy enough to let him wrap her hand around his elbow.

Tanya should have pretended to notice him by now. Then a thought stopped his mind cold. What if she really was… not interested? Well… that … it suited him just fine. How could he be so upset over a woman he'd discarded six days and four hours ago?How come he knew how long it had been?

Was he sulking? Had he been waiting for her to make another move, saying he was right and she had been rude to expect things from him? Yeah. Shit. What was he supposed to do?

_WHAT_ the hell was he thinking? He needed a woman. Any pretty woman. Now.

* * *

Harry and Draco were standing with Hermione and Ginny at the halls into the Great Hall to welcome the students inside, which had been seriously reworked to present an amazingly beautiful Medieval scene, full of golden lights, dazzling primary colours provided by the outfits. Every school was required to wear something unique to their country, and all of them wearing masks. All the Hogwarts students were dressed in medieval British style garments, full of pastels and chiffon for the girls, blacks and golden brocade for the guys. Hermione and Draco were required to man the welcome desk, as the Head students, and their dates for the evening joined them. 

Draco was wearing tights in a shimmering golden fabric, and a white high necked linen blouse. Over this he was wearing robes in black with a deep purple fur trim. His mask was black with golden sequins. Beside him Ginny had dressed in a flowing creation of purple to match.

Harry and Hermione were dressed like royalty, there was no other word for it. Harry had on a similar under-outfit to Draco, although he had teamed it with a red velvet cloak with white fur trim and a golden, almost Greek style mask. Beside him Hermione's outfit looked as though it had come straight out of a founder's wardrobe, so beautiful was the red velvet dress.

Around the room each school had dressed traditionally. The Villefort'ians had come dressed in flowing silken togas, olive bough's in their hair and what Ginny had called "Greek goddess dresses." The Thundreds had shocked everyone when they turned up dressed in Egyptian style belly dancer outfits and the men in full sheik gear, white flowing robes. And many other costumes added their own national flair and pride. Then the last of the guest's arrived.

"What the _hell_ are they wearing?" Draco demanded, while Harry struggled not to laugh. Leading the way into the Hall were Jacque Quain and Jeffery Campell. Jacque was wearing a satin halter neck with imperial purple pants underneath – necessary, as the dress she was wearing stopped around her belly button and opened out behind her. Jeffery, and apparently the rest of the boys, were just dressed in fairly simple dress robes, apart from their masks. Jacque was wearing a mask in the form of a white tiger with blue sequins above her eyes. Jeffery was wearing a black top hat with a mask coming down just over his eyes.

"I'm not sure," Hermione replied, "Though I'm sure it's not what they said they would be."

"Welcome to the Hunt Feast," Draco said, "Please sign your name's in the book," he gestured to a podium just beside them, where an ornate book was currently flipping pages until it opened onto 'Kallaix Academy Australia'. "In approximately twenty minutes the Feast itself will begin, you will find your seats marked by place cards. Please sit in your designated chair. Have a pleasant evening."

Jacque and Jeffery signed while Tanya, wearing a mask that seemed to be made of flames, accompanied by Saul, his face appropriately covered by a silver Joker mask, were greeted by Draco and Hermione.

Then came Tegan and Adam, Tegan wearing a suede and fur wolf mask and Adam with a "Phantom of the Opera" mask, which covered half of his face. After them came Kris and Alyson, Kris wearing a strip of black across his eyes like a bandit, and Alyson wearing a fantastic contraption of silver and white feathers. After _them_ came Justine and Ax.

Justine was wearing a black silk mask, covered in sequins and diamantes, while Ax had a delicate silver mask that surrounded basically just his eyes. Harry looked over to Draco – Justine was looking _stunning_, and he wondered how his brother was going to cope with it.

Draco was simply staring, Harry wasn't sure if he even realised he was. Justine leaned over to sign her name, and the welcome committee was granted a fantastic view of her cleavage. Draco stiffened, then turned and walked hurriedly away. Hermione gently pushed Ginny to indicate she should follow her date.

Justine straightened, adjusting a thick necklace of diamonds that hung low down into the front of her corset. Harry wasn't sure how comfortable she could be, since the necklace started at the very top of her neck like a collar.

Kallaix was the last group to arrive, and now it was time for Harry to locate the Head Boy and send Draco and Hermione to officially begin the evenings activities. Of course, after seeing Justine, Harry wasn't sure where he might find the Head Boy …

When they were bidden, the students all took their seats at the tables and requested the meal that they wanted. Tanya looked around her, laughter bubbling up inside her. She was having the time of her life. She profusely thanked the day that Justine had pulled her into this world. She looked down at what she was wearing, and could hardly repress the laughter – just three months ago she could have never dreamed wearing anything like this!

Saul, sitting beside her, was grinning at her. "You look like you're having fun," he remarked.

"I am!" Tanya replied happily, and rested a hand on Saul's, "Thanks for accompanying me."

"No sweat," Saul shrugged, seeing that Ax, sitting on the other side of the table and a seat down from them was giving him murderous looks whenever he thought that Tanya wasn't looking at him.

So, Ax was trying to ignore Tanya, was he? Saul wondered, well, maybe he was trying to provoke interest by pretending to be interested in someone else – didn't he realise that would just drive her away from him?

Tanya, however, didn't seem to have noticed, and Saul decided that he probably shouldn't point it out. If her heart had to be broken, then perhaps it would be best if she had fun before hand. He'd almost been believing that Ax was actually interested in Tanya for awhile there, but he'd known it couldn't last. Pity – they could have been so good for each other.

Not long after the meal commenced, troupes of Jesters were presented to entertain the feasters. "Talk about dramatic entrance," Saul remarked to Tanya, as a huge burst of flame covered the area by the doors to the hall and the group came bounding from within the fire.

He saw pretty quickly that he'd completely lost her attention. "Must be the fire," he remarked, very softly. Tanya was rather obsessed with fire – she was Mr. Bathie's favourite student, along with Tegan, after all.

The show went on for a little while, but it was very fire orientated. Eventually, with Tanya's best interests in mind, Saul tapped her on the shoulder to try and get her attention. Eventually she turned to him, "That food looks like it's getting cold," he told her, nodding to her plate.

"Oh!" Tanya said, looking at the food as if she'd forgotten it had existed. "Yes, I suppose it is."

Once the food had disappeared, the leading Jester came forward and spoke out with a booming stage voice, magically enhanced, "Ladies and Gentlemen, the first and second courses are now complete. Now, we will be having a session of dance, after which the Subtlety will be presented. Now, for the first dance!" He suddenly gave an odd little leap, followed by a somewhat … disturbing dance. "And now, the second!"

Another member of the troupe came over and pushed the first 'dancer' cum Jester out of the way, "Ladies and Gentlemen, please take your partners for … the waltz!"

"Where are we dancing?" Someone asked. "There _are_ tables all over the place."

"Oh, yes, why, I'd quite forgotten!" the man said, "Excuse me," he clicked his fingers and the tables all disappeared in a cloud of purple glittering smoke, which rose up, and then fell softly down on the dancers like snow.

With another Jester, the man demonstrated a stylised form of the waltz, which most of the students picked up very easily, and the music started.

Draco and Ginny were dancing over in one corner of the hall, and suddenly Kris and Alyson swirled over beside them, and Draco noticed that Kris was wearing a fake sword on his hip. "You know how to use that thing?" he asked over the music, nodding to it.

"Sure, Ax taught me!" Kris replied jovially, "You stick the pointy end in the other man."

Ax and Justine, who were spinning madly and laughing like mad, approached them, "You have no idea how proud I am – it took me _forever_ to teach him that much," Ax grinned.

"Well, that certainly shows your skills as a teacher," Draco sneered. Kris and Ax both suddenly stopped dancing and turned to stare at Draco for a minute, before turning and stalking off, leaving their partners behind.

Justine looked at Draco for a moment in disgust, then hurried after Ax, somehow managing to avoid falling over, despite the fact she was wearing stilettos.

"They were trying to be _nice_, and you come back with that," Alyson said, and shook her head and walked after Kris.

"That was low," Seamus remarked, "You've changed, Draco – I spent _days_ teaching you how to laugh, and this is the crap you come up with … do I have to teach you how to take a joke all over again?"

"It was a quote from a Muggle movie," Leon said, standing nearby. "It's called 'Zorro', Kris got the mask from there as well," Seamus and Leon moved away, leaving Draco feeling alone and royally told off. Ginny abandoned him also, going to dance with Neville, who'd asked her to the dance two days after Draco had.

Draco went to find Harry, who was getting drinks for himself and Hermione, to complain about the Australians. Harry was listening, but not agreeing with Draco like he usually did. Had Harry forgotten that she had tried to _kill_ them?

Suddenly Hermione came over and gently took Harry's arm. "Draco, Tanya's already explained what happened there to us. Harry knows what really happened, I know, for Gods sake even _Ron_ knows. You hold a grudge like no one I've ever met – and that's not necessarily a good thing," With that, she lead Harry away, leaving Draco feeling even worse than before.

* * *

Tanya, the moment the dances had finished, had headed for the Jesters and persuaded them to give her two fire sticks. Each lit with ever-lasting flame; she was spinning them in many weird and wonderful acts. Justine, seeing her and unable to find Kris or Ax, came over and stole a pair of pois (chains with fire on the end) and joined right in. Both of them had taken to practicing with fire sticks over the summer holidays, after their Sorcery teacher had told them that it would be part of the Seventh Year course. 

They finished a particularly hard movement, and Tanya held up her sticks and yelled, "I am the Lord of the Flame!"

"Hey Lord of the Flame, your hair's on fire," Saul called from the sidelines. She dropped one stick and went to check her hair. Saul came up and nuzzled into her neck, "Nah, it was just the light on your mask."

Tanya laughed, went to hit him, and then squirmed out of his grip and went back to playing with fire with Justine – it was just so much fun.

Suddenly the lead Jester came back to centre stage, "Ladies and Gentlemen, please take your seats for the Subtlety," he called, as tables and chairs appeared around the hall. The tables that came appeared with puffs of sparkly blue smoke, and were random, appearing wherever there was a group of students. If there were loads of people in an area, then the table would be large, but if there only two people, a tiny table and two chairs appeared.

The tables and chairs were both made of glass, which seemed to make some people nervous, Justine, however, seemed perfectly at home, so Tanya acted like wise. Saul sat next to her, and Leon, who'd been coming to comment on her skills with the fire-sticks, was set a place with them at a table for four.

The entire troupe of Jesters had disappeared, and now the doors banged open, and they returned, all of them levitating an enormous marzipan replica of the Hunt trophies. "We present to you, the Subtlety!" the leader cried out, and suddenly plates appeared out of nowhere in green smoke, and whizzing all over the place. Then the marzipan figure exploded, and all of the plates suddenly had miniature version of the trophy. All the plates then went to land in front of the students, so they could be appreciated, then eaten.

To eat the Subtlety, everyone took of their masks, and when the tables disappeared (the smoke this time pink), the masks went with them. "The masks have to transported back to your accommodation, and now, let the dancing begin again!"

Justine went to stand with Tegan and Ron, and when Tegan went to get a drink, Ron asked if Justine would like to dance, "Sorry about the whole dragon thing," he said, "I didn't understand." He swung her into the group of people forming a huge waltz on the dance floor.

"I'm sorry I told three ten tonne dragons to kill you," Justine replied, and smiled. Ron smiled back.

* * *

Justine was on the dance floor whipping up a storm in a mock Tango with Saul when it happened. She was just looking around for the group. Innocent enough at the time, but what troubled her was that she couldn't locate Tanya or Ax. 

Saul dramatically threw Justine into a low, long, slow dip and being Justine, she got onto the moment and threw her arms above her head and dragged them on the floor as he walked backwards, with her eyes closed. She opened them when Saul pulled her firmly back to him and spun her out. Over Kris's shoulder, who was dancing next to them with Electra, she saw Tanya just… staring at something.

Were those tears in her eyes?

Justine made a tiny, hopeless gesture with one of her hands and Jacque, thank god, picked up on the que and spun gracefully in on Saul's other arm, freeing Justine to melt backwards into the crowds of dancers.

It was a good thing the Tango was so smooth, it allowed Justine, if she kept her wits about her, to pass unheeded through he crowds to Tanya's side in an instant.

"What's wrong?" she called above the passionate music, but she too was reduced to staring when she looked out of the window onto the terrace. In a seemingly unoccupied area of the patio, Ax was… busy.

He was sitting on a long low bench, with a girl in his lap. The dress was blocking most of the view, but judging from the way she was moving, this was no innocent peck in the dark. Ax was all over her. Justine saw red. What the _hell_ was Ax doing, leading Tanya on _again_ then doing this?

Tanya finally chocked out an inarticulate sound and the first of her pearly tears flooded down her cheeks. Justine's mind was blank. This was Ax, her best friend, and Tanya, who was so fragile right now that it pulled Justine's heart.

"Are you kidding?" Justine suddenly exclaimed. In the girl's dishevelled hair, Justine and Tanya could make out a single sequinned butterfly.

Without thinking Justine rubbed her hands together and chanted "_Penetralis_", laying her hands on the bricks and walking straight through. The couple on the other side didn't see the girl walk clear through the brick wall, or the girl through the window turn sobbing into the crowds, nor did they sense the darkness as Justine darkened the windows, hiding them from all inside…

* * *

Tanya's heart, which had so fragilely put itself back together over the last week, was shattered into thousands of minuscule fragments that were now cutting into her very soul. Beside her Justine, for once, looked blank. How could she have let herself be delusioned into thinking he had seen her. Really _seen_ her? Ax _fucking _Kidson. Why the hell had she bothered? 

He had been so… charming this week. Tanya chocked. He had even seemed jealous at the party the other night when she danced with Malfoy. But it had all been part of a cruel act to hurt her, she could see that now. She was rejected _again_! Her grandparents had never wanted her, but she could deal with no affection but that of paid nannies and caretakers. She'd never fit in at school, the little reject, but she knew she had Leon.

If she couldn't even attract the attention of Ax, who gave it out to woman in spades, how was she good enough for anyone? What was wrong with her? Tanya knew she was crying. She was unloved, unwanted, a discard.

Justine's hands suddenly began to change as she rubbed them together, her lips moving as though she were chanting under the music. The air about her became blackened, charged with negative ionic energy. She walked straight through the wall, and turned to begin blackening the window.

Oh god no! She had to find a way out of this place! Justine would gently tell Ax to stop doing things in front of Tanya, and just expect Tanya to get over it and join back in with Justine's happy little world she had built herself and brang Tanya into. Tanya would never fit in!

She turned, ashamed and ran smack into Tegan and Adam who were laughing and dancing jovially.

Tegan saw the look on Tanya's face and sobered, "Tanya what's going on? Wasn't Justine with you?"

Tanya choked on her tears. "I saw… I saw Ax on the patio with that Padma chick from the other night and I think I overreacted, I mean it's in his nature… Justine's gone to deal with it, but how the hell can I face him now?"

Tegan's eyes widened. "Padma, as in Ron's girlfriend?"

Adam was already looking for them. "It's not Ax we have to worry about, its Padma!"

Tanya couldn't focus on why there was such a fuss. Justine was little miss tactful; she'd deal with it quickly and quietly.

Tegan grabbed Tanya so tightly that she was forced to focus. She said in a voice one would expect for use on a five year old, "Tanya, tell me where they went. Don't you remember what Justine did to the Miranda chick when she cheated on Saul?"

Tanya's eyes widened. Justine hated Miranda now, _because she had cheated! _She had dyed Miranda blue, all over, charmed her hair to attack her and set the Wentworth dragon on her! Not to kill, but to scare the shit out of! Kris had called it off, but the whole school had seen Miranda shamed. Violently.

Tanya turned and sprinted for the doors.

* * *

Justine saw Tanya come pelting out of the doors, with others, and realised she was running out of time to take action. She summoned the power back from deep inside and lifted Padma aggressively off Ax, relieved to see they were both at least somewhat decent down below. 

Padma shrieked in indignation, annoying Justine further, and Justine threw her violently at the nearest wall.

Padma's pain stormed into Justine's mind. What the hell was that? A memory of … her? She threw a barrier around Padma so she couldn't move and advanced on Ax.

But Tanya had beaten her to it. Raising her wand, she pointed it straight at his chest and said in an angry voice, "_Soberitus!_"

Ax almost fell backwards off the bench, just catching himself in time, his dazed look became confused, then his eyes filled with stark clarity. "Oh my god what the hell was I doing?"

Justine shook her head. "I've stood by you while you've done a lot of fucked up things over the years Ax, but this takes the cake. We _know_ her boyfriend! What the hell were you thinking?"

Ax put his head down in his hands and responded quite painfully, "I was confused, and then drunk, oh man."

Tegan went over and put a hand on his shoulder, Adam, who Justine hadn't even notice disappear, re-emerged from inside with Jacque, for once she was Jeffery free. Tanya stood straight in front of Ax, her head low, her eyes, blazing, and focused dead on is face. "Confused? Drunk? You're going to blame this… disgusting behaviour on other behaviour. You're a big boy now Ax, you can't pull this crap anymore, you knew exactly what you were getting into. Jesus, you probably even recognised her you're that fucked up. Until tonight you actually had me believing that it was me. That I was defective or ugly. Not good enough for you. I was so wrong." Tanya was speaking clearly, softly, with tears trickling down her face.

Suddenly her eyes flashed, her body went rigid and when she opened her mouth, she let it _rip._ "Do you ever wonder why girls pay attention to you Ax? Because I do. What is it about this _asshole_ that could possibly attract me? I understand tonight. It was because I thought you were someone else. I thought you were just playing up to the dumb blonde slut image. But you weren't, you really are that EGOTISTICAL, that MORONIC, that fucking UP YOURSELF! Don't you get it? People are sick of your image, and soon they won't want to be around you anymore. You're going to loose your precious sparkle and then you won't be able to draw in the girls so readily, and you know what? You're going to end up _alone_, with **_no_** friends, only your fucking ego!"

Tanya turned sobbing and ran from the patio. There was a deadly silence. Justine stood with one hand over her mouth. Ax made a gesture to move, but Justine flicked her other hand and petrified his bottom half. "You'll make it worse you dick."

Alyson looked at Justine then dashed off after Tanya, who had headed in the general direction of the lake.

Justine turned to Ax, who was still sitting as though he was in a state of shock. She looked drained, as though something was hurting her. "Ax. She's right you know. You played her all week and then proverbially killed her. I've always thought of you as a good person hiding behind an image, but maybe Tanya's right. Maybe you just get off on hurting her." Justine shook her head and turned away. Walking in a big circle around the patio.

"I think I love her." Was Ax's choked reply.

Justine ignored him, but Tegan placed a hand on his shoulder, and as though she was conveying her neutrality in the situation said, "You have a funny way of showing it Ax."

Justine turned and walked back over to him. Looking down at him she shook her head. "I'm going to have to play this by ear. I need to think and deal with other things right now but here are the rules under which I don't send your ass right back to Australia now. One, stay the fuck away from Tanya, I brought her into our little circle, she's my responsibility. Two, don't talk to me unless I talk to you. Don't be mistaken into thinking we're friends right now. Three if in fact you have broken Tanya's spirit, or if she has lost her glow, I will kill you with my bare hands," Justine looked down at him so seriously that some of the fluff in Ax's head lifted.

"Have I hurt her that bad?" Ax said softly.

"I think it may be worse," came Adam's voice from the shadows, where he and Jacque had been tactfully silent. "I'm going to go and find Leon and Saul. Tanya will need a whole bunch of love right now. Ax, just for the record, coming from a bloke, this is wrong." With that he turned and walked back into the party.

Ax, who could now move again, got to his feet and looked own at the ground, noticing Padma. "What are you going to do with her?" he asked of the unconscious girl with the shimmering black field around her.

"I'm going to find out what the thought of me was, it was something important I have the feeling." Justine turned to him and her heart leapt, he didn't understand what was happening to him, that he was experiencing heartache. Dammit, why did he have to be so damned innocent when it came to real love? Justine walked over to him and hugged him tight. He returned the hug and buried his face in her shoulder. "I don't know what to do. Have I lost you too?" He whispered.

"Leave it all be, I need to figure out a way to sort this out. Trust me Ax. Stay away from me for a day."

Ax stood back and looked at Justine and turned to walk towards the boat. Justine turned to Tegan and said, "I don't care what you do to him, but keep him out of my sight."

* * *

When her eyes began to flutter open Padma couldn't understand where she was. Was she laying on the cold stone ground? She raised a hand to her hair to see what the throbbing pain was and encountered a huge bump. She rolled and laid on her other side, then immediately screamed. Justine Snape stood there, her emerald eyes emanating with electricity, her whole body glowing with a faint black glow. 

She scampered backward away from Justine, whom Padma could see wasn't alone. Another girl, the school's techie, stood back, in the shadows of the darkened windows. Why was it dark in the great hall? Why was there still loud music, but it was so hushed in the patio.

Justine looked at the pathetic creature trying to get away. She raised one hand and lifted her from the ground, so she was hanging just above what she could reach with her feet. Padma screamed, but Justine had already thought of that, Jacque was nearby, using her wand to hold up a silencing dome.

"So, tell me, do you prefer slut or hussy?" Justine asked with a sadistic grin.

Padma answered with a whimper.

"Hussy it is then. For starters, what the fuck made you think you were good enough to touch an Australian guy? Sure he may be Irish by birth, but you're dirt compared to him. Your going to have to stay away from us for the rest of the conference or I'm sure and one of us would dig your lying heart our of your chest with a rusty spoon." Justine grinned maliciously, proud of her imagery.

"Now, little hussy. I'm about to go and have a swim through your mind, I need to look at your memories to get a better perspective." Justine walked to the crying girl and placed a hand on each side of her face. "It won't hurt! Okay… maybe just a little." Justine leant forward slowly and kissed Padma on the forehead.

The world went black. Sound couldn't penetrate the world, which now only contained the two girls. It felt as though the blackness was moving, whooshing past, but Justine felt no breeze, she leant back, clear out of her body and turned. In the zone she turned from the two bodies were frozen, one in a perpetual scream, the other kissing her forehead. Justine did a graceful swan dive into Padma's thoughts and dreams…

Two young girls were born… they did everything together… one sporty the other bookish… Padma wasn't as good as Parvati. School, separated, finally accepted. Justine sorted through the early memories of Padma with next to no emotion. She fast-forwarded them so to speak, until she was standing on the patio, looking at Ax sit on the bench with a glass in is hands. Next to her stood Padma. She was glaring at Justine!

Inside Ron had just claimed Justine for a dance, and Tegan moved away to find a drink. Justine could remember it. She hadn't even thought of Padma or where she might be.

Justine turned to see Padma walking over to Ax. She couldn't hear sound, but from Padma's memory she picked up on the emotions. Anger, Jealousy, Revenge. Attraction.

Justine picked out the Jealousy and studied it. Ax was bitching drunkenly about Tanya!

Justine stopped the memory just as Padma jumped into his lap, telling him she'd make him forget Tanya. She really didn't want to see that for a second time.

Back in the darkness, Justine examined the situation. This was all a fault of circumstance. But really, it was all people's judgements of other people. Padma's want for revenge for Ron and Justine's relationship, as innocent as it currently was. Ax's jealousy of just about everyone who looked at Tanya. Justine's judgement of Ax.

She remembered the thread of memory and fast-forwarded Padma's mind again to see Justine look over at Tanya who had just emerged from the castle. Justine lifted Padma and threw her… THERE! Justine picked up on Padma's momentary lapse into memory banks and followed the thread of mind. She was standing in another room. The Room of Requirement, Padma's memory told her.

Ron and Padma were sitting on a couch, kissing. What was this? Had Padma been guilty of her cheating… no? Seeing Justine had reminded her of what Ron had done… Ron was feeling guilty… he started talking to Padma. Justine listened to the memory, how could Ron have done this? Justine was getting emotional, she felt her Magai powers tingling. She had to get out of here before she caused Padma mental pain. She turned and ran back to the frozen bodies, hurtling herself into her own.

She came screaming back to consciousness like a freight chain. What the hell? That couldn't be true, was it Padma remembering a dream?

Justine turned on the gasping girl who was holding her head. "That last memory I saw, you and Ron in the room of requirement… Was it real?" Justine yelled. Padma's big brown eyes were flowing with tears, but Justine didn't care. When she failed to answer the question, Justine reached out her hand and said, "_Adflictetornus!"_ causing Padma to scream in agony. Justine stopped the screaming by slapping Padma hard.

Padma's head popped back up and she glared at Justine. "It was real. Ron ruined your life. I think you deserved it."

Justine's eyes thinned to dangerous slits. "_Condelescere,_" Padma screamed and slumped, before Justine dropped her to the ground. Justine stopped thinking. Ron, it had all been Ron's fault. She looked down at her body, glowing with Magai power.

Jacque dropped the invisibility shield and walked to Justine. "What did you find? Was Ax trying to hurt Tanya or not?"

Ax. Her mind told her to focus on Ax. Then she find, hunt down and kill _Ron_.

* * *

_BAH BAH BAAAAM! he hee hee i love clififes. What actually happened two years ago between Justine and Ron and Draco? I had so much fun writing Ax in this chapter :) he's so self confident.I did warn you that Draco was going to cop it soon, and it has begun with the** power of Greg**! Please Read and Review! If you do i'll give you a hug! it's just down there, just hit review..._


	13. Bloody Monkeys!

_This Chapter is for Dark672: Im sorry about the H/Hr, but dont worry, it wont last much longer! thankyou for reading diligently and we love you..._

* * *

Chapter Thirteen: **_Bloody Monkeys!_**

Justine walked back into the party; she had to be seen here enjoying herself to give her alibi some substance. Jacque had just taken Padma to the Hospital wing, but Justine knew the moment she woke there would be trouble. She had to be seen at the party. Spotting Kris on the other side of the room, she didn't realize she walked straight into the middle of a game. The music suddenly stopped and she was swept into someone's arms. When it started again, Justine looked up into the face of Seamus, who was grinning and dancing exuberantly.

"What's going on?" she asked, suddenly catching her wits about her again as she was whisked around the room.

"Lass, it's an elimination game, when the music stops you have to find another partner before the music starts again or your out!" Seamus seemed to be having the time of his little Irish life. Justine figured that to give her story some substance she would have to smile, so she laughed back up at him and joined in the fun.

The music stopped and she turned and ran straight into Harry, who grabbed her up and swung her around. "I'm going to win, stay by me and we can do it!" he yelled.

Justine twirled. "What's the prize you're so determined to get?" Justine laughed.

Harry did a little river dance. "I will be the lord of the dance!" Justine almost died laughing. Harry looked so weird when he did that it was hilarious!

The music stopped.

An Egyptian, Sharif, caught Justine. She had met him with Electra; he was a wonderful dancer, pulling Justine in way close, swinging them through the crowds. Next she danced with an expressive Villefort student, who's classic flamenco style got Justine laughing. She looked around at the group on the dance floor; the dancers were thinning.

Harry caught her again, followed by someone else, faces after faces swam in front of her and she laughed up at them all. Soon she was on of the few pairs left, dancing with none other than Kris. "I've been trying to get to you!" He said grinning down at her. His eyebrows suddenly drew together. Something was… _false_ about Justine's smile. "What's going on?"

Justine tried to blink back the tears, at least Kris still knew her. "Ax has broken Tanya's heart again, and I know why Draco hates me. What made him think I cheated on him," Justine said through the tears.

"What?" Kris said, "Oh my god bunny, what the hell happened?"

Kris never got his answer, The music stopped and Justine was swept up by another guy, There were only three left, and they were forced apart so as to make it harder to get to the next partner. Kris was with Electra, who laughed as he swirled her, still looking at Justine.

Harry was on the other side of the floor with a pretty girl from Beauxbatons. She looked up. Somewhere fate must have been cackling in her little boots, plotting ways to destroy people's fragile little minds... Justine was dancing with Draco Malfoy. Justine looked up at him, barely dancing, just letting him lead her around. "You're kidding?"

Draco sneered down at her, "I take no pleasure in dancing with _you_, you cheating little whore, just sit back and enjoy hmm?"

Justine lost the plot. She just started crying, and crying. Life was so unfair.

Draco didn't know what the hell to do; the girl had just… broken down. They'd been pretty nasty to each other over the years, but she'd never seemed effected before. When the music stopped again he let her go, moved on to the girl in the sparkling belly dancer outfit, watching as Justine just left the floor, followed by Kris.

He didn't realize the music stopped again, and before he could turn to catch the French girl, Harry and Electra were announced as the winners.

* * *

Justine stood between Kris and Saul, who for once looked dead serious. "Ax, your actions of this evening were not only heinous in content, but you seriously hurt the emotional state of another student within my keeping for this event, as such you may be judged by a group of your peer's who, by chance, were not present at the act itself." Kris said in a serious tone.

"Your jury will consist only of those within our team who are not bias toward this situation, ergo those who did not witness the accused act. You will have the opportunity to choose one student to speak on your behalf, but under no circumstance may you speak without leave." Justine said slowly. "While we do realize that your only actual crime was the taking of something or someone," she looked at him sternly, "who did not belong to you, we are here to deal with the social aspect of your actions, and how they inflict hurt upon others."

Saul took his cue. "You will be judged by Kris, as head boy, myself and Jeffery, both of whom have only been given second hand accounts. The hearing will start immediately after we take our places, then you will appoint a speaker, who will, in an unbiased way, argue your case."

Saul walked and sat down on a chair, one of three to one side of the ship, the rest of the students, plus Leon sitting across from them. Leon had one arm around Tanya, who wasn't even looking at Ax. He had been called from dancing to come and look after Tanya. If Ax put a _toe_ out of line he'd kill him, or die trying.

Ax looked up from his hands as every one took seats and looked at Justine. She'd been through so much tonight, Kris had told him that directly after his thing, she had a run in with Malfoy, which she wouldn't talk about. She returned his gaze and held it, her emerald eyes showing him compassion. He felt hopeful. She nodded, and he sighed with relief. "I call Justine for my speaker."

Justine stood and walked to stand in front of the makeshift podium of judges. At school they had a room for this, but they had to make do here. "I accept the right to speak on behalf of my friend, schoolmate and brother Alexander Kidson."

Kris nodded, then Justine handed Ax a small crystal phial. He drank the liquid and turned slightly blue for a second before returning to normal. She took a deep breath and she plunged in. "I call Ax to speak."

Ax got to his feet and stood to one side so that all could hear him, and was glad for Alyson when she moved to the closest seat to him available. Justine turned to him "You are under the influence of Saul's potion, and if you lie you will feel excruciating pain,"

Ax nodded, and to test the waters so to speak like the idiot he was he annunciated very slowly and clearly, "My name is Bob." Suddenly he doubled over, breathing heavily, Justine running to his side to make sure he was ok.

Justine took her place once again. "Ax, you have been accused of many crimes, but the first one I wish to address for the well being of one of our school mates, I need for you to tell us in your own words, _why_ you had relations with Padma, was it to deliberately hurt someone?"

Ax's shook his head and made a face. "God no, I did it to prove to myself that I was still the man, I did it to prove that I could get through this, and I was still attractive to girls." Ax looked tired, Justine thought, his voice was a flat monotone, as though he himself didn't know these answers he was just discovering them himself.

Kris watched his best friend go through the experience Ax himself presided over with Kris and Justine at school. Tanya looked miserable. God, why did someone so sweet have to fall for Ax? Justine was doing an admirable job, bringing out the fact's without bias. Whatever she had seen in that girl's head, Justine was on Ax's side, and Kris didn't get why, he had to admit. Her next question clued him in a little though.

"You told me once that you didn't think you were capable of loving. I guessed it was because you were never loved yourself, only lusted after, at the time you didn't understand the difference. Ax, I think you do now, tell me." Justine said with quiet confidence.

Ax's head shot up and he looked Justine dead in the eye, a look of shock on his face. "I don't want to. That'll just incriminate me a hell of a lot more!"

Justine looked back at him. "Tell me or I'll back down as your speaker."

Ax sighed. "I only ever felt lust after the pretty girls or the ones who would make me feel good. I see now that it was lust because there was never any emotional substance to our relationship. I wanted she wanted, we both gave, and then I broke it off. Lust. With Padma I didn't even feel lust, more, complaisance. She was there, I needed to prove nothing was wrong with me…" He trailed off…

Justine grabbed Ax's hand as she looked into his eyes encouraging him. "And what was wrong with you? What was it that you were trying to get through?"

Ax looked Justine dead in the eye. God was it always this hard to admit in public you had thought that maybe you loved someone? "I think I'm in love, and I don't understand it." Was the response that came trickling from his mouth. Damn Saul's truth potion! He hadn't wanted to admit that.

Justine turned from him to look at the Kris, Saul and Jeffery. "Clearly what my friend has proven by truth is that he did not set out today to deliberately harm anyone, he was in fact, bent on self destruction. Why is it then that we are still holding him on trial for actions performed not only under the influence, but also instigated by the other party?"

There was a small gasp at Justine's words. Jeffery leant forward and said, "Are you saying that Padma came on to Ax?"

Justine looked back and said in a determined voice, "That's exactly what I'm saying. I saw it myself."

Kris looked down. "Ax, I don't want to be unreasonable. Tell me this. Under the potion," he shook his head, "_Sober._ If you love this someone so much, why not just tell her?"

Ax looked at Tanya for the first time. Square in the eyes. "Because I told her I wouldn't come on to her, that I'd leave her alone and give her respect. So I've been flirting like mad to make her come on to me, clearly I didn't do a good enough job," Ax looked away.

* * *

Tanya sat rooted to the spot. She had only agreed to come out of her room for this fucking hearing when Justine had told her that Leon could come. Ax had just admitted that he loved her. Oh my god. Tanya just stared at him, open-mouthed. What the hell? She had been good enough, but she hadn't made the move and now it seemed she'd missed it.

Typical, it was her fault.

Ax, for someone who didn't think he could feel love, was certainly explaining it well. Tanya shook her head; she had gotten so caught up in what he was saying that she had missed most of what Justine said.

Suddenly Kris was declaring that the decision had been made! Saul got up off the podium and came to sit beside Tanya, kissing her on the cheek and taking her hand.

Jeffery stood and said, "In relation to the accusation of taking the girl Padma with deliberation, it is the opinion of this council that you did, in your drunken state, understand you were entering into a physical state with Padma uncaringly, but we do have to take the state itself into account. We believe that the alcohol obviously, being a depressant, affected your feelings of unworthiness and self-pity. Therefore we are going to let the charge go with an official warning entered into your file at school, and request that no contact is made with the girl during the duration of our stay." He smiled at the group and moved to Jacques side.

Kris's deliberation would be the final one, and usually the one where the sentencing was passed.

He stood and looked down at Ax. "My friend, you have been accused of seriously harming the well being of a Kallaix student. None of us can contest that this week you have paid enormous amounts of attention to Tanya, and she to you. To be frank with you I can understand that you didn't realize the implications of what you were doing, you being of an unnaturally affectionate nature with girls. What I think stands to be pointed out none the less is that when her hopes were at their highest dude, you turned around and proverbially kicked her in the pie hole. Thus I maintain that although it may have been unintentional, you hurt Tanya.

"But the question does remain weather this act was done knowingly. I ask the rest of the group to look at our facts. Ax, for lack of a more descriptive word, was pissed. Padma, bent on revenge threw _herself_ at Ax when he was at his emotional lowest, a state brought on by self-realization. Justine witnessed this herself first hand from Padma's perspective. Tanya never made her new intentions clear to Ax, no matter how hard we all may try to defend her she did tell him not to assume she would be his. Ax cannot be judged in this circumstance - it's just too complicated, he is our friend. I stand by him." Kris stepped down. He looked to Justine who just smiled one sided and nodded.

"All of you, I'm so sorry." Ax said earnestly. "I'm a bastard, but I'm learning! Just kick me in the ass when I get out of turn." Justine kicked him promptly in the ass.

The laughter was a great icebreaker; One by one all of the Kallaix student went and showed their love for Ax in their own way. Hugs, kisses, whispered apologies.

Lastly, "You know we wouldn't have really sent you home, we love you way too much. Besides we need you to win the duel!" Alyson wrapped herself around his waist, and then headed down.

When everyone had gone to bed, Leon Tanya, Justine and Ax stood on deck. Justine suddenly flung herself into his arms. "Ax, I love you. Just in case you were wondering, we're so friends, never any doubt."

There only remained four people. Justine, who had climbed the ladder to the top deck to watch the moon, claiming it was prettiest at one in the morning, Tanya and Leon, who had yet to even look towards Ax, and Ax himself.

Tanya suddenly breathed deep. She knew that she'd have to do this, but she was just glad she had Leon. She turned and approached Ax. When he went to speak she held up a single finger and closed her eyes. "I just need to… Ax there are a few things, which still get to me about tonight. Firstly neither of us bothered to act on our feelings. How stupid is that? Second, that made me question who I am, what made me, _me. _No one should ever wonder what is wrong with him or her. I'd like to say it's not your fault, but really it was circumstance. If you had have asked me an hour ago, I would have damned you to the deepest circle in the darkest hell, but now that I've heard your side I say this. We had no promises tonight, we weren't attached or pledged, and so I have no real right to be all that upset, okay? From now we are going to have a blank slate. We're friends, but none of our past experiences count, good or bad. Okay?"

Ax looked as though a weight had been lifted. "Friends," he held out a hand.

She took it. "This is chance number two, this time don't fuck it up." She disappeared down the stairs.

Leon looked at Ax. "If you hurt her again, I'll kill you."

Ax smiled, "What no threat of shovels or cutting or pain? Not the metaphorical type?"

Leon grinned, "No, you'll just be dead." He shook his head and followed Tanya to her room and gently closed the door.

Ax turned and looked up to Justine; she looked like a porcelain doll. The type you see in the shop window with the pale skin and curly hair, the type that takes your breath away. Her dress sitting perfectly around her, creating a nest, her hair and jewellery sparkling in the moonlight.

He turned and climbed the ladder. Taking a seat close to Justine he leant over and lifted her clear off the chair, bringing her to his lap and wrapping his arms around her. "That could have gone worse." Her whisper was muffled from somewhere near his ear.

He sighed. "If that had have been at school and a fair trial, I would probably have been suspended by student vote, I really messed Tanya around, and a lot of those chicks would love to see me screwed over for messing with a woman."

Justine leant back and looked him dead in the eye. "Ax, we love you, you're our big brother, our best friend, our secret crush. You are the most amazing person. Look inside yourself and figure out how to become the person you are right now all the time. This Ax, the sweet one me and Alyson only ever get to see, is the real you, and he's amazing."

Ax suppressed tears. This girl who was so obviously hurting herself right now was comforting him, and saying all the right things. He gently reached up and kissed her on the forehead, then said in a whisper, "Please tell me what happened tonight, or at least tell me how I can make all this better."

Justine looked forlornly back at him. "You want to hear the whole sorry tale of my love life and how it's been screwed from day one?" she said bitterly, then seeing his serious look nodded.

"At the start of fourth year I finally got the opportunity to meet the family I had in Britain that I had never met. For some reason my Uncle had decided that with the rising threat of You-know-who I would be safer with him, something about some peter guy returning to somewhere. Go figure. So in September I left my friends at Kallaix and moved to England. When I arrived I was swept into a world of wonder. I was still a Wentworth but they called it something different and it was red for some obscure reason. Good old Gryffindor. And then I met you and the boy's."

Ax nodded, he could remember Justine in fourth year, she had shoulder length black hair, and was curvy, and nowhere near the beauty she was now. She had been feared by most simply because of her last name by most people in her house. Ax had been a favourite of Snape, and was even getting after class tutoring in sword duelling from the potions master, though he couldn't tell the other Gryffindor boys, so he had made friends with the quiet girl, only to discover she wasn't quiet, she had been a burst of personality, innocent and sweet and she had stolen his heart. Damn her, she'd made him respect her and it was the beginning of the end for him. They'd been friends. Always.

"So, I got closer and closer to you, but also to Ron." Ax felt her entire demeanour change, she was angry. "And I dated him for a while, while he wasn't speaking to Harry, but when they were friends again I was forgotten, just someone to kiss in dark corners, because of course we couldn't tell anyone because he was so scared of Sevie. It sucked, so I dumped him. Then, well you know all about the so-called perfect relationship I had with Draco. The only fight we ever had was when I went to the Yule ball with you, he didn't appreciate that…"

Justine paused. Her eyes somewhere far off. "I loved him, with everything I had. We would sneak around and be the perfect couple in secret, we didn't tell anyone at first by accident, and then it was so fun we kept it up. Secret liaison." She laughed. "It was so cute."

Ax let Justine talk, although he knew the story. He could remember Justine getting the origami lotus flowers in class, they would float down and land on the desk in front of her and she would smile and tuck it away, or put it in her hair. She had later told him it was a special code. White was I need you right now. Pink – Find me as soon as you can. Red – See me tonight at our special place… and every one of them meant I love you.

Suddenly Justine spoke things he didn't remember. "Ron was jealous that I'd dumped him and somehow found out I was dating his worst enemy. I didn't know, he was still just charming to me. But he got together with his older brothers, Fred and George, because I had broken his heart, and they concocted a plan. They created a false memory; one that showed Kris and I sleeping together and they implanted it into Ron's memory, knowing that once a mind had validated it, it could be placed in a pensieve. A pensieve that was left on Draco's bed. It was all Ron's fault. I never cheated - he made Draco think I had, because pen sieve's don't lie, they show the memories of a person. Ron had a validated memory." Justine was crying, great crystalline tears rolling down her face.

Ax's eyes grew round. It was Ron. Justine had been broken because of Ron. He had moved to Australia because of Ron. Everything, good or bad, was a result of one bitter little boy's determination to show up another little boy. Ax's anger was slowly rising. Justine's spirit had been broken because of bloody _Ronald Weasley_. He was going to die. "Justine, now you've told me this you realize I'm going to have to kill him." He said with controlled rage.

"No. We have to do the stupid 'mystery tours' tomorrow, I can't think of both, and I _can't _go near Draco again." Justine was calmer than she should have been. Ax was worried until her eyes thinned and she said dangerously. "Then we kill him."

He hugged her tight again. Then it occurred to him, Draco. He needed to know, Ax had seen how this had haunted Justine over the years, and Draco had the same look. "Justine we need to tell Draco."

Justine stiffened in his arms and slowly stood and moved away to the other side of the boat. "Draco can rot in hell for all I care. He didn't even give me the benefit of the doubt, he just assumed I did it, so now I don't care."

Ax stood. "I'm going to bed. Are you coming?"

She shook her head. He knew she needed time, he would send Kris up for her in ten minutes, she listened to him, but right now he had to call a meeting, All those who were still awake needed to know this.

* * *

The water looked as though a thousand stars danced upon it, where the lights from the castle refracted on its glassy surface. Justine watched as her tears made concentric circles, fascinated with the shape of them. She had nothing to do but cry, and she was entranced with just how beautiful her tears could be.

What she needed was to get away from here. Draco, god she needed to get away from him. And Ron, she had to get away before she tried to kill him. She looked up at the castle. They were both up there.

She reflected on the 'new' Draco, or what she had seen of him when he didn't know she was watching. He was taller, his supercilious nature of fourth year had settled into a superior class, which suited him. Damn he was so handsome now, those quicksilver eyes flashing at some joke Seamus had made. How unfair, he had learned to laugh and she had come back into his life and stolen it from him.

Damn Ron. It was his fault, not hers.

She needed to get away. Right now she needed to find somewhere to hide and lick her wounds, she turned to face away from the school and saw the dull glow of lights against the sky to the east. Hogsmede. _MARK!_

In a flash the girl in black stilettos was gone, down the wharf and into the night. In the same moment that her black dress vanished into the night, other figures, all dressed in pyjamas except for the blonde boy in dress robes, came on deck.

* * *

Kris turned to Ax. "Where is she?"

Ax's eyes went round. "She was right there," he said pointing to the top deck, where he and Justine had spoken moments before.

Alyson and Tegan looked worried; Saul ran down the stairs to her room but came back empty handed. Kris rounded on the group. "Ok, where would she go?" but was stunned when a sudden tingle came from one of the deckchairs. Alyson had her mobile in her hand, and Justine's ring tone was coming form her handbag perched on the arm of the chair. Alyson's face fell and she pressed the button to the phone to make it stop ringing.

Ax went and put an arm around her and said in a consoling tone, "it was worth a try, it was a good idea, really." Ally's phone began to ring, and the whole group Held their breath as Ax took it. "Hello?" he said slightly breathlessly. "She's there?" he nodded. "I'll be there as soon as I can, tell her it's not her fault."

After Ax hung up the phone he explained that Justine had fled to Mark's hotel to talk to him. After she had arrived Mark noticed the press and paparazzi, most of whom were present from the Hunt that day and all of which who were staying in Hogsmede, had noticed Justine's arrival. She had been stuck inside since she had arrived ten minutes ago.

In the end it was Kris and Ax who snuck out of Hogwarts and strutted up to Mark's room, pretending as though it was a planned thing they were there, and when they left the four posed for a single photo. Justine leant on Ax and Kris and they took her back to the cruiser and tucked her into her bed. Winky hovered nearby, ready to look after her little mistress, and as the lights dimmed the only sound on the boat was the soft sound of the McEwan dragons song. Her children were stressed; she would lull them into a magically deep sleep.

* * *

Leon meandered back to the DA common room. He was thinking about the Trial that had been held in the Kallaix cruiser, and wondering why Hogwarts didn't have something of the like. Kallaix definitely deserved its reputation as the best school in Australia, if not the world.

The students could be judged by their peers instead of by the teachers, who often didn't understand what was really going on in the students' minds. He'd bring it up next DA meeting – though he might have to conveniently not mention that it had come from the Australians.

"Leon! Get in here now!" Harry yelled as Leon approached the DA tower. "Terry's melting down about the Mystery Tours tomorrow."

"What's wrong?" Leon asked, "Has he lost the forms or something?"

"No that was Daphne and the Hunt course," Harry replied, "He's panicking because he can't find a hat to draw the names out of … he isn't listening to us yelling about the Sorting Hat, but maybe he'll listen to you."

Leon sighed, "Why wouldn't he listen to me over the rest of you?"

"Because we've been teasing him with stupid idea's for doing things for hours now, and he thinks this is more of the same. He seems to think that Dumbledore isn't gonna let us borrow it."

"I'll handle it," Leon said wearily, walking into the DA meeting room, where there was a raging debate going on. Everyone was yelling at Terry to just ask Dumbledore for the bloody sorting Hat, while Terry was screaming back that he could handle it, and would they just shut up and let him think.

"Y'ALL SHUT UP!" Leon thundered, taking it all in at glance. "If you need an _Aussie_ to organize you, you really are screwed," everyone did as Leon said and shut up. "Harry, go and get the damned Sorting Hat from Dumbledore's office, he'll do anything to make you happy right now. Terry, this thing starts in less than ten hours and you haven't even got the damned hat yet? And here you all are yelling like kindergartens …"

"Kindergarten?" Someone asked in confusion.

"See three year olds," Leon drawled. "Now, Terry, is there anything else you haven't done yet?"

"No, I just need the Hat," Terry replied. "It's all under control now."

"Alright, good," Leon said, "Is there anything else that you lot need me to deal with? Cos I just feel like getting some sleep."

"God, stresser," Daphne muttered.

"You shut up!" Leon said coldly, "I've had an emotional night and I want to _sleep_! Have you got a problem with that?"

"What, your girlfriend broke up with you?"

Leon's eyes narrowed dangerously – after seeing all of Tanya's pain, and Justine's for that matter, tonight, he was in no mood to deal with Daphne's crap. In a single fluid movement, he pulled out his sword and pushed Daphne up against a wall, the sword at her throat. "Listen to me Daphne. You have been against the Australian's since they arrived – I've put up with it until now. If you insult my country-men in my presence again, I swear I'll kill you. If you refer to Tanya as my girlfriend again, or try to make fun of me about it, I'll kill you, or anyone else for that matter. We are not, and never have been, emotionally attached in that way. Tanya's having some problems, and I'm trying to be a supportive friend. I do not need your crap – do you understand me?"

The sword was digging deeper and deeper into the soft flesh at Daphne's next, much more pressure and it was be drawing blood. Daphne was sobbing in fear, tears of pain trickling down her cheeks, and she didn't answer.

"DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?" Leon roared, and a single drop of blood slid from his sword blade and down Daphne's neck.

"Yes," Daphne choked, as Ron and Draco advanced on Leon to try and put a stop to this.

"Leon, calm down," Draco said, and suddenly Leon dropped Daphne, spinning around. His sword wavered between Ron and Draco and the anger drained from his face.

"Don't come near me!" Leon snarled at them, "I don't know what the fuck you two have done, but what ever it was, it must have been bad. You disgust me," he sheathed his sword and stalked away from the group, and a moment later they heard his bedroom door slam.

Draco and Ron looked at one another, "Huh?"

"I'll go and see what I can find out," Harry said, "He's obviously angry at you and Ron, Draco, but I think he'll talk to me. He wasn't angry with me when I saw him before."

Hermione touched Harry's arm, "Be careful," she told him. Harry nodded and smiled at her, then headed to the bedroom area of the tower. He came to Leon's door and knocked softly.

"Who is it?" a drained sounding voice came from within.

"It's Harry," Harry called, "Leon, can I talk to you?"

"Yeah, I guess," there was a sound of footsteps from within, and the door opened. Leon had stripped off the Hogwarts uniform and was wearing a singlet and shorts, looking extremely tired and maybe even a little upset.

"What's wrong?"

"I hate losing my temper. I only do it when it's necessary, but I hate myself when I'm angry, hate the person I become," Leon replied. "I didn't hurt Daphne much, did I?"

"No, but if you had, she deserved it," Harry replied, stepping into the room. "You have a point. A lot of us have been bitching about the Australians, never really thinking that you _are_ an Australian. I never really thought about it until now, but it must have hurt so much, hearing us saying things like that about people from your country, especially when one of those people was one of your oldest friends."

"It's been hard," Leon agreed, "You've been speaking about Australian's in general, and that hurts even more than when you're talking about just the Kallaix students. I know that you don't include in me in that, in my head at least, but my heart hurts. Really hurts, sometimes."

"We're lucky you're such an easy going guy. You've never even brought it up until now; you've just let it go. Thinking back, I'm surprised that you haven't lost it at someone before now," Harry remarked.

"You know, I think you've been spending too much time around me," Leon said, "I just noticed, you're using a lot of more Australian language – I mean, you said 'bitching' just before, and when I walked into the tower you said 'gonna' …"

"Are you trying to change the subject?"

"That obvious huh?"

"What was it you meant when you were talking to Ron and Draco? You've never had anything against them before, and Ron at least hasn't been doing much Aussie-Bashing, and with Draco it's been more about Justine than anyone else," Harry said. "Neither of them seemed to know what was going on."

"Remember how Justine broke down earlier after dancing with Draco?" Leon replied after thinking for a moment.

"Yeah, I'd wondered. She used to treat him with anger, or hurt. She's never cried, that I've seen," Harry said, "I'd meant to ask one of the Australian's about what was wrong with her."

Leon sighed, "The only thing I know is that Draco hurt Justine, and that Ron had something to do with it," he told Harry. "Tanya's told me before that she's never seen Justine cry, not even when something really bad happens … if something could _make_ her cry, it's got to have been something _bad_."

"Weird," Harry remarked.

"What's weird?" Leon asked.

"Never mind. If I can make sense of it, I'll let you know," Harry replied. "So, you calm now?"

"Well, I wouldn't bring Daphne anywhere near me," Leon replied, "But otherwise yeah."

"Good. I'll see you in the morning?" Harry said.

"Guess so, yeah," Leon grinned back. "I just want to sleep now."

"If you need to talk about anything, I'm here," Harry said, and let himself out.

* * *

Draco was sitting on the huge bed in his room, flicking through the photo album that Colin had found and brought to them. Every picture had the Australian group, with Justine smiling, waving, and laughing dammit! Why did she have to be everywhere he looked these days?

He leant over the bed to stuff the album into his bag to return to the Kallaix students the next day, and, from the very back a newspaper clipping fluttered out. Interested in spite of himself, he picked it up. It showed a picture of Mark Hall, Justine, Tanya, Saul, Kris, Ax, and Alyson under the caption "The Aussie Brat Pack Reigns".

Draco arched one eyebrow and read over the article, his mouth dropping open with each new paragraph. This explained a lot, really. It also changed a lot. He'd have to show this to the Defence Council before he gave it back to the Australians. He sighed. Every time he thought he knew everything about the Australian's, something new came up.

He decided to leave trying to figure out what the implications of this newspaper article were and go back to trying to figure out what Leon had meant when he'd said that Draco and Ron disgusted him.

* * *

She wrinkled her nose. "And if I take the potion I'm going to suddenly be happy?" Justine looked at Saul suspiciously

Saul had brought her a mild for of the pepper-up potion, diluted into some orange juice Winky had brought him from the castle. "It'll give you a good day, you don't deserve to be this sad Justine."

She rolled her eyes and threw back the juice, squeezing her eyes shut as the happiness filled her every pore. "How deliriously ludicrous, its like liquid sunshine!"

Dressed in blue jeans and a white singlet Justine felt ready to face the day. Nearly. She tossed her hair into a loose bun at the back of her head and pulled on her black leather trench coat she had worn that day to lunch with Weasley. Each student had been asked to arrive at the great hall for one of the few mandatory breakfasts of the conference. She was going to face the world, and now she was going to do it smiling.

Tanya entered her room while she was pulling on her black, heeled boots. "Can we talk?"

Justine looked up at the redhead, who was dressed in dark dusky jeans with a black turtleneck, "Sure," Justine replied, thinking that this would be something to do with the night before. "Are you angry with me for supporting Ax last night?"

"Hell no!" Tanya replied, "Actually, I just wanted to let you know that I'm not angry with you at all!"

"But you're angry with Ax?"

"No," Tanya sighed, "I'm not. I don't know why I'm not, but I'm not. I don't like all this animosity, I never wanted the student trial. I was angry when it was suggested. If I'd been left to calm down, I would have been fine. Now I feel like I've torn the group apart, like I've made all this trouble for you. I'm really sorry about that … I want you to help me."

"What do you want me to help you with?"

"Stopping all the animosity that's directed at Ax right now. I don't blame him for what he did. It was my fault for not saying anything as much as his for doing something like that. But now everyone's angry, and I _never_ wanted that. I want it to be back to how it was yesterday morning," Tanya replied.

"Tall order," Justine remarked, "I'll work on it."

Tanya bounded over and gave her a hug, "Thanks!" she said.

* * *

The Kallaixians had just entered the hall, with the notable absence of Justine and Ax, and taken their seats at their table. All of them were looking a little out of it, though Tanya seemed to be one of the more collected of the group. The moment they'd all seated themselves, Leon got up from the Hogwarts table and went to sit next to Tanya and spoke quietly to her.

Daphne, who was wearing a scarf tied around her neck, completely hiding her throat from view, seemed to not know whether to smirk or glare at them.

"What's up with Daphne?" Tanya asked.

"I tried to kill her last night," Leon replied comfortably.

"Why?"

"She was being herself," Leon replied, not really wanting to go into the details. He didn't want to remember the anger he'd felt last night.

"Well, that's understandable," Alyson remarked, "She obviously can't take her own medicine."

"Let me guess, you went for the throat?" Saul asked. "After all, she seems to be going to a fair length to _hide_ it."

"I only drew a little blood," Leon said, now becoming uncomfortable, "Could we talk about something else?"

Suddenly the door flew open and Justine walked into the Great Hall, dragging Ax along behind her. Ax was protesting somewhat violently about it, and obviously trying to leave the castle completely. Justine, however, was either stronger than she looked, or using magic to make him stay with her.

She dragged him straight over to the Kallaix table. Ax didn't look at anyone, and no one was looking at Ax. "Does anyone have a problem with Ax eating at our table?" she demanded.

"No," Tanya said, looking uncomfortable.

"Nah," Adam grinned at Ax.

"Not really," Jeffery said, and then went back to talking with Jacque.

"Me neither," Jacque said briefly.

"What the hell? Why would we?" Kris demanded.

"Ax seems to be under the impression that we all might have a problem with him after the events of last night, even after me profuse assurances that this isn't so, so I brought him over here so you could tell him yourself."

"Of course not!" Alyson said.

Leon didn't enter into the conversation, figuring that it was nothing to do with him.

"Yes!" Saul said suddenly, and the entire table turned to stare at him. "He's wearing _purple underwear_!"

"Dude! How'd you know that?" Ax demanded, staring at him.

"What, you mean you were?" Saul said, cracking up, "Look at me go! I am psychic! I am now only to be addressed as Saul the Psychic!"

"It wouldn't have any thing to do with the camera you hid in his room?" Jacque enquired.

"What camera?" Ax demanded, looking between Saul and Jacque suspiciously. "What is Saul doing with cameras in my room?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Saul replied, "I find your devilishly good looks irresistible and have been stalking you for years now. I'm surprised you never noticed before."

"You're just messing with me, aren't you?" Ax said.

"Course we are," Jacque replied. "It's not often we get you in a mood when we can say something to you and you _don't_ have a perfect repartee – this is the stuff that history is made of."

"Come and sit by me, my love," Saul said, batting his eyelashes at Ax.

Ax went over and sat down beside Saul and rested a hand on his shoulder, gazing into Saul's eyes, "I never dreamed that you could feel the same way," he said, in a romantic voice, "Why do you think I'm always getting with the girls? I need something to keep my thoughts from you … but distractions never last for long."

Saul squealed and fell backwards off the seat. "I am back in the throne mate," Ax said, holding up a hand. Kris gave him a high five as the entire table burst into laugher. Saul dragged himself up from the ground and joined in.

The ice had broken.

* * *

Dumbledore sat in his office behind his desk, stroking the top of Fawkes's silky head as the bird trilled and crooned. He started at the parchment in front of him and pursed his lips. Wasn't it hard enough for Harry when he was already in the midst of one prophesy, without adding this to his plate? The Prophesy of the Magai. Not recognised because it was made by a squib. He shook his head. And how would this even be able to come to pass? None of the Magai's were even speaking to one another…

He turned up to the Sorting Hat, sitting on his shelf. "Old friend, I need you to do something," The hat nodded and grinned, the rip in its brim turning up and crinkling. "Two of the schools you will be given to sort today are called Kallaix and Hogwarts…"

* * *

As the breakfast things cleared away, Terry Boot stood up and went to the front of the Hall. "Could I have your attention please?" he asked, a little nervously. Everyone stopped talking and looked at him, which seemed to make him more nervous still. "My name is Terry Boot, and I've been organising the Mystery Tours. I'm just going to give you a quick run down of the Mystery Tours before we go any further.

"Basically, the goal of the Mystery Tours is to see how people react in situations that are not necessarily in their comfort zones. Everyone here will be deployed in teams of four, two from one school, two from another, and will be sent to a location where they have to survive for twenty-four hours. The Sorting Hat, as an Impartial Judge, will choose the schools that have to pair up together – you do not have a choice in which school you are paired with, but each student can choose the person from within their school group that they want to go with."

Terry turned to the Sorting Hat, and a rip near the brim opened, like a mouth. "Beauxbatons and Thundreds," the Hat said.

"Could the two named schools please come and stand at the front of the line, while you pair up within your school. You should choose someone you can work well with," Terry instructed them, then waited while they did so. "OK, now, in your pairs, could you reach into the Hat and draw out a card. This card will have a heart, a star, a key, a treble, or a shield."

Again, he waited while the pairs drew out their cards, "Now, find the pair from the other school who has the matching card," Terry instructed, "Then you can move out into the Entrance Hall and wait to be Portkeyed out."

The next two schools were Villefort and Nhi-Lon Fohs. By this stage the Kallaix students were praying that they would be paired with Grendwell – none of them were interested in being paired with Hogwarts, and Durmstrang didn't sound particularly appealing either.

"Kallaix and … Hogwarts," the Hat said next.

"Dammit!" Justine screamed in frustration. Everyone turned to stare, and Justine blushed and hid her face as they walked up to pick out their cards. Justine's lips were moving almost soundlessly, but if you got close enough to her, she could be heard almost praying, "Pleasenotdracopleasenotdracopleasenotdraco…"

Ax walked straight up to Justine, claiming her as his partner. Adam and Tegan, knowing they worked well together, paired up, as did Saul and Tanya. Jeffery and Jacque, of course, would go with no else – twenty-four hours without snogging? How else would they survive? Kris and Alyson were perfectly happy to be the only ones left, and ergo together, Kris and Ax deciding Kris needed to protect her.

* * *

In the Hogwarts team, Hermione had grabbed Harry's hand the moment they were told that they had to find a partner they could work with in their group. Since Harry was taken, Draco looked around the group, wondering who else he would be able to work with – not Daphne, that was for sure, and most of the other's were people that he didn't know all that well. He and Harry worked best when it came to teamwork, since it really wasn't Draco's forte. He looked at Leon, and raised an eyebrow.

"We work well together," Leon remarked, coming to stand next to him. "Sorry about last night."

"What did you mean?" Draco demanded.

"Nothing that I can tell you about. It's for those involved to discuss when they are ready, which, at the moment, I doubt they are," Leon replied.

Draco nodded, aware that he'd get no more out of Leon on the subject. He turned his attention to the Kallaix students walking up to the Hat with them. Why did Hogwarts have to be paired with Kallaix? The only groups on the other side he thought he stood a chance at working with where Adam and Tegan, Jacque and Jeffery and Saul and Tanya. If he had to work with _her_ and Ax … he wasn't sure how many people would make it back to Hogwarts alive. And working with Kristopher was completely unacceptable.

When called to, he reached into the hat and drew out a card with a key on it. He immediately looked to Justine, and was relieved to see that she'd drawn a card with a heart on it. Well, that was one load of his mind. Now he turned to Kristopher, who had a star on his card. Well, that meant that whomever he was working with wouldn't be trying to kill him, which was good.

"Tanya!" Leon called, flashing the key card to his friend; Tanya gave a peal of laughter, and grinned widely as she held up the identical card, then dragged Saul over to join them.

"Hi Leon!" she grinned, and hugged him, "_So_ glad I get to work with you, I was so worried I'd have to be working with a group full of people I hardly knew!"

"Yeah, imagine what would have happened if we'd been paired with Daphne," Saul agreed, "Of course, it would have probably been better if we'd been paired her – now Kris and Alyson have to deal with her … I wonder how many points we'll lose when it turns out she was murdered en route?"

"Quite a few, so let's hope she isn't," Tanya replied.

"Come on, we have to wait out in the Entrance Hall," Leon said, walking on one side of Tanya while Saul walked on the other, leaving Draco to trail behind, which he was not particularly happy about. "Does anyone know where we're going?" Leon asked after a moment.

"We won't find out until we arrive by Portkey," Draco said, "Which you'd know if you'd been in the DC Tower instead of gallivanting off with the Australians."

"Gee thanks, you make me feel _so_ wanted," Saul muttered.

"You're the only Pom in a group of Aussies," Leon grinned at his partner, "I'd be watching what you say right about now."

Draco had just realised the same thing, and decided he'd better stop making such comments if he wanted to make it out alive. They waited in the Great Hall with an ever-growing group of people. After awhile, Terry made his way out of the Hall with Hannah Abbot, Jeffery and Jacque, who were to be his group for the exercise.

"OK," Terry called to get the attention of the gathered students, "You will all be given a Portkey by me, which will take you to a pre-chosen area, and you will have to survive there was twenty-four hours. You will have no money but that which you can beg, no extra food that you cannot gather yourself, no water unless you find a well. Unless extenuating circumstance applies. You will be given a map, which will show you the location of the second Portkey, the one that you will bring you back here. It will not activate until seven am, Hogwarts time. Take a Portkey from the box that shows your image."

On the other side of the Entrance Hall was a line of five baskets, each one with an image of one of the five symbols on it. Tanya, Saul, Leon and Draco walked over to the basket with the key, along with the other three groups, and selected one of the four pebbles, each also marked with a key, from within the basket.

"Well, a pebble is easy enough to overlook," Saul remarked, "A good thing to select as a Portkey, because it doesn't matter where it goes to, we can just drop it, if we want to, and no one would guess that's its something magical."

Draco gave him an odd look, probably wondering what was going on – Saul was making an _intelligent_ comment, and Draco had rarely ever heard anything but stupidity from the Australian boy. The four of them touched the pebble, while Terry counted down the seconds until the Portkey was activated.

Suddenly Tanya felt a tug behind her naval, and they were gone. Suddenly her feet slammed back into the ground and she staggered a half step, before quickly regaining her balance. Saul let himself fall, tumbling over in a backward summersault. Draco and Leon both staggered a little, then watched as Saul rolled around on the ground, pretending to try and get up.

Tanya looked away from her companions, and the first thing she noticed was _sand_, lots of sand. Then the heat really hit her. It was very hot, especially compared with the British weather they'd just left behind. It reminded her a lot of an Australian summer, which was, in an odd way, relaxing. Where they in the outback? She didn't think so, the sand was the wrong colour.

"Hot," muttered Draco, scowling around the surroundings. "Sandy and hot."

"It's not that bad," Leon replied cheerfully. "Reminds me of home, really."

"This is nothing like Britain!" Draco said, "Much less Hogwarts. This is _hotter_ than most summers!"

"He meant Australian home," Saul put in, and Draco glared, "I knew that."

"Sure," Saul replied, grinning. "So, where _exactly_ are we?"

"Egypt, I think. I remember doing a project in Primary school," Tanya put in. "Not sure where in Egypt, but I swear I've got the country right."

"Cairo," Leon agreed, gazing around them carefully, "This is Cairo – the Capital of Egypt," he added, just in case anyone didn't know that.

"Do you think those packs are for us?" Tanya asked, pointing. They were in a very back street of the city, and the paving was out of wack and covered in sand from the desert. Against a nearby building was a small pile of packs. There were four of them, all of which were very small.

"I didn't think we'd get packs, Terry made it out like we wouldn't, anyway," Leon remarked.

"Well, we can't be completely prepared for all of this," Saul pointed out, "They do kind of need to give us _something_ to survive with. What if we'd been sent to the snow? We'd never have survived in what we're wearing now."

The three Australians were all wearing jeans and t-shirts (Tanya having discarded her black turtleneck very quickly after arriving), Draco was wearing a silk shirt and loose black pants – the closest he was prepared to come to Muggle clothing. Beside the packs was a pile of shorts, apparently left there for them. The four teenagers crouched beside the packs and examined them.

The packs were so thin it seemed that there could be next to nothing kept within them. Tanya opened hers, a discovered a plastic bag type thing full of water, with a tube coming out of it. "Ah!" she said, "I've seen these before. They're called bladders, I think. Really good for hiking, because the water doesn't need to be taken out of the pack, you just hook the tube over your shoulder and drink when you need to. Muggles develop some weird things sometimes."

"This is a Muggle invention?" Draco demanded, "Wow."

The Australians laughed at that. "Like I said, Muggles invent some weird, but very cool, things when given half a chance," Tanya said.

Also in the packs was a small amount of food. Not much, but enough to keep them going for a short time before they'd have to find more. "There's a note under packs," Leon said, lifting the note and reading it.

"OK, it says that the water, at least, will replenish itself, and the food will get us going, but won't last, which we knew already. It says that the shorts have been provided to make us a little comfortable, but shirts are our own concern. On the back of the note is a map showing us the way to the second Portkey, which will take us home," Leon said, and everyone gathered around him to look.

"It's in a _tomb_!" Tanya nearly shrieked.

"It'll be alright Red," Leon replied gently.

Draco looked at her, "What, are you scared of dead people?"

"I'll be fine," Tanya replied, but her face was pale with fear. Saul and Leon both rested a hand on her shoulder, but Draco stayed back, not feeling in the least bit welcome.

"We also have to find someone to take us to the Pyramid that contains the tomb," Leon said, reading a note from under the map. "We can't beg someone to take us, they have to offer to take us. It should take around four hours to reach the pyramid, but we'd never survive unless we were going with a caravan of some description."

"What if there isn't a caravan going out today?" Tanya asked hopefully.

"Terry wouldn't have made it impossible to get this thing done," Draco put in. "There'll be a caravan out … and if there isn't, we'll just have to steal some brooms or something."

"I think you mean camels," Leon corrected.

"Or flying carpets," Saul put in, grinning. "I know they're illegal in Britain and Australia, I did a research project on them once, but they aren't in Egypt. An accepted means of travel, actually, for Egyptian wizards and witches."

"You would know," Tanya muttered. Saul grinned and bowed. "Well, we may as well change into the shorts and get going," Tanya continued with a sigh. "We have a caravan to find, since I don't the relish the option of stealing."

"If we need to, I'm up for it," Leon told her. "We have to do this, and if we have to steal, we have to steal. I'm sure everything would be returned when we left anyway."

Everyone turned their backs on each other to change, since there didn't seem to be anything more private anywhere in the vicinity. Then they put the packs on and adjusted them so that the water tubes were in easy reach and were working properly.

Once they were ready, the group of four moved into the city, quietly discussing ways that they might get a ride to the pyramid. "Well, we could just ask," Tanya remarked, after listing to the three boys yabber about various plans. "I'm sure _someone_ would know if anyone's going out to the pyramid. Everyone gossips."

Everyone turned to stare at her. "She has a point," Saul said, "Simple plans are usually the best."

Tanya rolled her eyes and fell silent again. Draco sighed, "I'll do it, I suppose. At least I won't scare them off," he remarked, and approached the next person he saw. "Hello?" he said. The person looked at him, and then started babbling in Egyptian. "Hello? Do you speak English?" Draco demanded.

"English? You English? I sorry, English no speak," the man replied cheerfully, and wandered off.

"Well, that didn't work too well," Leon remarked dryly.

"No shit Sherlock," Saul agreed. "Let's just find a trade centre – they'll be bound to not only have information, but people who can speak English to give it to us."

Draco gave Saul another odd look – this was several intelligent comments today … was he sick? Saul took the lead now, and led them through the city with surprising ease. "I did _so_ many projects on Egypt that the only thing I can't do is speak the bloody language," Saul remarked, "I know a couple of phrases, but they're pretty much limited to, 'I don't speak Egyptian', 'do you speak English', and 'where is the nearest toilet'… oh, and 'Your wife is quite attractive, but you need to watch the smell'."

Leon and Tanya laughed, and Draco just rolled his eyes. Having been exposed to the touchy Australian humour, he didn't want to offend Saul right now … it could be dangerous, especially since they had to rely on one another.

Soon enough, they'd walked into the middle of a bustling centre of trade. "OK, where to now?" Leon asked.

"Let's talk to them," Saul replied, pointing in an apparently random direction.

"What? Isn't that what I did? In case you didn't notice, it didn't work," Draco remarked.

"Ah, but you aren't me," Saul replied, and walked over to the people he'd pointed out. Everyone else followed. "Hi," he said, smiling widely at a tall Egyptian man standing in front of a tent, with a smaller woman beside him.

"You are English?" the man asked, his accent _almost_ flawless.

"Sure am buddy," Saul replied.

"I speak your language well, how may I help you?" the man asked, beaming back at Saul.

"We're looking for a way to get ten k's north, any ideas?" Saul replied.

* * *

Tanya watched as the pyramid loomed closer and closer, a dark spot on the horizon, half hidden in the heat haze, but she could hardly tear her eyes away from it. She knew that soon she would have to go inside the pyramid, and then the door would close behind her, and she would be stuck there, there would be no way out, no fresh air … they'd get trapped-

Suddenly a handful of sand flashed past her face, and she jolted, looking around to find that Saul and Leon had brought their camels up beside her, and were now half dismounting to pick up handfuls of sand and throw them at each other, with her in the middle, getting showered in sand.

She urged her animal onward faster – it hadn't taken nearly long enough for her to work out how to ride a camel, which was annoying. She'd been hoping she would have to concentrate on the camel, and then she would think about the door closing, and the darkness surrounding her, blocking out air, light, movement …

"Tanya! Join in!" Saul yelled at her, throwing a handful of sand that hit Tanya full in the back. She half turned to glare at him.

"Like I can reach the ground to get the bloody sand in the first place," she told them, then looked around to see if she could find Draco. He was riding a little way off, as if trying to pretend that he had nothing to do with the over excited Australian teens, and had a look of distaste on his face. She figured that this might be because he was riding a camel – he was probably wishing he had a horse, or at least something a little more elegant, to ride.

Before Saul and Leon could find another reason for her to participate in their _sand fight_, of all things, the caravan master came over to them. "We can take you no further now – our route passes no closer to the pyramid … we have left the route behind as it is."

"That's ok," Saul replied, slipping down from his camel, along with Leon and Draco, Tanya following a second later. The caravan master held out a cloth bag. "We had some spare food, which you are welcome to."

"But you've done so much for us already," Leon said, trying to wave away the food. The caravan master had provided them with head coverings to keep the sun off their faces and protect their skin from burning.

"No, really, you must take the food!" the caravan master said, and after a few moments, Saul just stepped up and accepted the bag, and the caravan master headed off, and the rest of the caravan headed after him. Tanya was staring at the pyramid, which was some nine hundred metres distant now. "We may as well divide the food," he continued, and they all knelt down to shuffle things around in their packs, save Tanya, who was staring at the pyramid as if nothing else existed in the world. It took Saul almost five minutes to get her attention and give her a share of the food.

"Oh," she mumbled, and quickly stored it in her pack. Saul took over the lead, and Leon herded Tanya ahead of him, so she was walking just between him and Saul. Draco walked out to one side, just in case they tried to start another sand fight – he would _not_ get involved.

Tanya walked as if she were going to her own funeral, while Saul and Leon kept up a near constant stream of chatter. The three Australians were having a fairly easy time of it, being fairly used to sand, as they basically lived on the beach. Draco was struggling a little, but somehow managing to look both elegant and collected, which Saul seemed rather impressed with.

"You must be the only person I've ever known who could look elegant while tripping over," Saul remarked to Draco.

Draco just sneered at them and they continued toward the pyramid. It was huge, now that they were close to it. It dominated their vision, rearing into the sky, a man-made mountain of dusky sandstone. It was the only pyramid in the area, and stood right in the middle of the desert, with no perceptible landmarks that might have led to this site being chosen above any other place near by.

Just before they reached the pyramid, Tanya stumbled and fell to her knees, shaking, staring at the pyramid. "What's gotten into you today?" Draco demanded.

"Leave her alone," Leon replied. "Why don't we stop and have a bite to eat before we go inside – I'm feeling a little peckish."

Saul nodded in instant agreement and sat down beside Tanya, with Leon following suit. Draco scowled, "It would be easier to get _inside_, then think about food."

"Three against one, outvoted," Saul replied, so Draco reluctantly joined them, sitting cross legged on the hot sand and looking very uncomfortable, as they pulled out some of the Egyptian food, with Tanya appearing to do everything on auto-pilot.

"So, what have you gathered on Kallaix?" Saul asked Draco innocently. "I know you don't much about the school, but Justine said a bit about it in her … argument with you the other day – how much did you pick up?"

"What sort of thing?" Draco asked, up for the challenge of seeing how much he'd picked up.

"Well, how about the houses? I know that you got confused with some, what with the colour change and all," Saul said, innocently enough. If Saul is trying to be innocent, anyone who knew him well would start running as fast as they could in any direction that would get them away from him.

"Well, Wentworth is your version of Gryffindor, Steelwell is Slytherin, McEwan is Ravenclaw, and Petersen is –" Saul and Leon both scampered away, just as Draco said, "Hufflepuff".

"WE ARE NOT HUFFLEPUFFS!" Tanya _shrieked,_ suddenly finding the voice that she had been lacking since they'd found out that they were going to be inside a pyramids, "You think that everything in this entire bloody universe revolves around your _stupid_ school, our school does not _accept_ stupid people! We are the musical and artistic people of the school, but I guess that your school just doesn't _have_ any talent!" she was right up in his face for the last comment, then spun around and stalked up to the pyramid, slapping it, "How do we get into this bloody thing? Let's just get this over with so I can get out of the company of close minded people who see things only in stereotypes!"

In the background, Leon gave Saul a high-five, then Saul came over to Draco and clapped him on the back. "Sorry about that, I was getting sick of her being apathetic, and nothing else was working," he grinned at Draco and bounded after Tanya, leaving Draco shaking his head, not understanding what was going on here.

* * *

Justine walked along next to Ax, Harry and Hermione. They approached the base of the stairs where a sixth year student was standing holding a sign with a large heart on it. Justine reached out with one hand and groped for Ax's hand, quite scared about what she was about to face. Where were they going to be sent, if their theme was intuition?

Hermione walked over to the boy and took from a basket he was holding a pebble. The sandy-haired boy wrote the number on the attached card on a pad, explaining that it was so they could be located in emergencies. "Great, they're worried they can loose us, bet you it's like the jungles or something." Justine said with narrowed eyes.

"C'mon babe, you know you're going to be fine, I'm here to take care of you." Ax squeezed Justine's hand looking down into her worried eyes. "The way I see it we lucked out. We could have been with Daphne or Draco, this way we can focus on getting good marks okay?"

Justine managed a weak smile up at Ax, glad that he was always there for her. She reached out, as did hundreds of people in the room with love-heart pebbles and touched it. In a flash and whirl of colour the entire group disappeared from the entrance hall.

Justine felt as though she were rushing through space at high speeds, although she could still feel solidarity under her feet. She was being pulled as though someone had hold of her belly button. She came back down in a rush of white. She fell forward onto her knees and felt _cold_. She looked around her and realized she was sitting in a snowy forest. She began to gather herself together, Ax helping her to her feet, seeming to have not fallen at all.

"We're in the snow, great!" Justine laughed, seeing Harry help Hermione to her feet as well. She looked at Ax and noticed a sudden tension. She stopped smiling and focused, sending out a quick spell to scan the area for others. She got a mixed signal back, there was something in the trees to their left, and it wasn't human, it wasn't friendly.

Ax held up on hand and Justine felt the same spell she had just used emanate from Harry. It was weird feeling Magai magic not caused by her. Harry nodded and Ax flicked two fingers towards a nearby opening in the forest wall that looked remotely like a cave. She looked up as Harry held three fingers, making sure he looked them all in the eyes so they would understand not to move until it was time.

One finger dropped, Justine gathered herself to run.

Another, she saw Hermione turn slightly towards the cave.

The last finger dropped and Ax ripped out his sword as he ran straight after Justine, Harry pulling Hermione along in the lead.

* * *

"I say _again_, how do we get in here?" Tanya asked, after five minutes of trying to find the door that they knew was there. "That's it!" she whipped out her wand and pointed it at the section of the pyramid that they were sure held the door. "_Alohomora!_"

Suddenly the section of the wall slid in and to one side. Inside, the darkness beckoned, and Tanya suddenly went to take a step back, but Saul and Leon were already herding her into the void, knowing that she wouldn't go in otherwise. "_Lumos_," three voices murmured, and then a forth did so unwilling, as the door closed behind them.

Tanya held her wand up, looking fearfully around. It didn't seem so bad, she thought, relaxing a little. This entire section was open, and was _big_. "Did this seem as big on the outside?" she wondered.

"Pyramids, by their very nature, are big," Saul replied calmly. "They took years and years and years to build, you know."

Tanya just gave him a look. "Well, let's go then," she said, relaxing even more and starting forward. Saul went to grab her back, just as she went sprawling over a tripwire that had been hidden in the darkness. Saul and Leon hurried forward to see if Tanya was ok, so it was only Draco who saw sections of the wall open and walls descend to form a barrier around them. From the patterns across the ceiling, he knew that they were about to be stuck in a maze, and cast a quick spell that copied the pattern onto the ground at his feet.

Tanya screamed suddenly, and Draco looked up, seeing her looking around at the walls with an expression of panic on her face. "Your little tripwire brought them down on us," he informed her, but didn't say anything else because Saul and Leon were glaring at him. "I copied down the pattern that shows the way through, by the way … so hopefully this won't take us too long."

Leon and Saul helped Tanya to her feet, "Carry on, fair leader, and we shalt follow thee into the gates of hell," Saul said dramatically, waving Draco ahead of him, and Leon chuckled, as they once more pushed Tanya head of them, walking two abreast behind her.

Draco copied his map to a piece of paper, and then the led the way into the maze.

* * *

Half an hour later, and Draco was no longer think that this would only take a little while. "Tanya, I would like to know exactly how you've managed to find just about _every bloody trip wire in the entire maze!_" he growled at Tanya, who was sprawled on the ground for the fiftieth time in the last ten minutes, having just fallen over yet another trip wire.

"Sorry," Tanya replied, letting Saul and Leon help her to her feet. "Well, it wasn't so bad, was it? It didn't do anything too bad, did it?"

There was a sudden sound behind them, and they spun around to see a mummy walking out of an alcove that had just appeared. "No, nothing too bad at all," Draco muttered wearily. "You stay back, and let us handle it," he added to Tanya, who obediently huddled against the wall, while the three boys moved toward the mummy. This was the forth one she'd released so far.

Saul picked up a rock and hurled it at the mummy, which turned its attention to him, while Draco raced straight it, pulling out the sword that he carried with him at all times and lopping the mummies head off, while Leon leapt into the air and kicked it in the chest, sending it sprawling to the ground, where it turned to dust.

"Dude, we have that down to such a fine art," Saul remarked, looking at the dust, then they collected Tanya and started forward again.

"Can you try _not_ to fall over any more tripwires?" Draco asked, as he had since the second one she'd tripped over.

"I'll try to try," Tanya replied, then suddenly stumbled and went down, "Oops," she said, just as Saul bellowed, "HIT THE GROUND!" the walls had opened, and all down the next part of the maze, spears were shooting out at chest height from either side of the corridor.

Tanya, already down, looked up apologetically and tried to smile. "Oops," she repeated, "My bad."

"I think we get the point now," Saul said, then chuckled weakly, "Get it – point? The spears, you get it? How they have the points?"

"How can you be so intelligent one minute, and so stupid the next?" Draco asked.

"Tis a fine art," Saul assured him.

"Like a fine wine," Leon put in, "It matures with age … only Saul … dematures … wait, is that a word?"

"I dunno, you didn't see him at eleven," Tanya said, picking herself up, then throwing herself down again as a second round of spears flew overhead.

Saul stood up uneasily, once that round had finished, and nothing happened, so they all got up and headed on. "I fail to see how you can find tripwires so easily. I've already _walked_ across the ground that you're walking on, and you _still_ manage to find tripwires!" Draco growled at her.

"Why don't you go third, Tanya?" Saul said, "Maybe it's just that the tripwires are activated when Draco walks past."

Twenty minutes later, Tanya had disproved this theory on no fewer than five occasions. "Not again," Draco groaned, as Tanya hit something, and jumped now, no longer sprawling every time she hit a tripwire, she was keeping her balance a lot easier now. "What's going on now?"

"The walls!" Tanya whimpered, pointing. The group looked around, and noted with mounting panic that the walls were starting to close in on them.

"Maybe it's just this section," Saul remarked, unhopefully, but Tanya took off, bolting straight down the corridor as fast as she could run, the others spurred into action by her movement. Three turns on, and the walls were so close that it was very hard to run, but Tanya was moving as fast as the limited space would allow. Suddenly she tripped, yet again, on a corner, and flew straight into a wall, breaking her headlong fall.

The stone that she fell against was pushed into the wall a little. "What now?" Leon groaned – even he wasn't very happy.

"The walls stopped moving!" Tanya yelled happily, then noticed just how close the walls were to her and panicked again. Suddenly the walls whipped back, quickly reforming.

Draco sighed in relief, "For once, it seemed you've managed to do something right," he remarked. "But it was you who got us in trouble in the first place, so don't think you've been forgiven!"

Tanya ignored him, holding up one hand, trying to revolve it, then she gave a cry of pain. "What?" Leon and Saul asked as one.

"I think I sprained my wrist," Tanya said, biting her lip, holding it against her chest. Draco, looking at the map, cursed at just the same second.

"The bloody walls have changed!" he said, "That's what your little rescue trick did!"

"Draco, calm down … we'll just have to use point me, or something like that," Leon said, focusing on that problem. Since this seemed a little more important than a sprained wrist, which she'd lived through several times before, being a gymnast, Tanya didn't say anything more. Besides, she figured that she was already causing more problems than she was worth, and didn't want to seem like she was whining.

Draco didn't have a wand on him, and had already told Saul and Tanya that he was a Magai, so Leon took over the lead, using the Point Me spell to try and negotiate the rest of the way.

* * *

For over an hour, Tanya actually managed to avoid falling over anything or setting off any traps … except for that one mummy, which wasn't too bad. While everyone else had forgotten about it, Tanya was too busy concentrating on her hurting arm to be panicking and setting off traps without meaning to.

Of course, the lucky streak couldn't last long, and half an hour further on, she fell over a tripwire and, in surprise, went sprawling, hurting her wrist a second time, crying out again, which, once again, no one noticed. The ceiling opened and a boulder was hurtling toward them on a long string. By the time it hit them, it would be pretty much touching the ground – there would be no escape.

Draco threw up his hands, and the boulder was frozen in mid air. The second jarring of her wrist was too painful to try and put out of her mind, and Tanya couldn't quite manage to stop a scattering of tears falling from her eyes. "Tanya? Oh, I'm so sorry! We forgot all about your wrist!" Leon said, kneeling beside her, both him and Saul forgetting about the boulder that Draco was holding up with magic.

"What did she do?" Draco asked.

"She sprained her wrist when she fell into the wall that stopped the walls closing in on us," Leon replied, "But we forgot when we realised that the walls had moved. You should have said something, Red."

Tanya shrugged slightly, the tears wiped away, once more collected and trying to put the pain out of her mind, or at least let herself concentrate on that, rather than the enclosed spaces. "I'd rather think about pain than some of other things I could be thinking about."

"Once we get past this rock, I'll heal it for you," Draco said, "In the meantime, can we just move on?"

The group hurried past the rock, and then Draco let go of it, and it spiralled away into the darkness, then come racing back like a pendulum, but it didn't come anywhere near enough to threaten them a second time. Draco sat Tanya down, "Now, this might tingle a bit – Magai healing isn't quite the same as normal magical healing."

"I know," Tanya replied calmly, "Justine's healed me often enough when I've tried new methods in gymnastics and end up nearly killing myself. I do that quite a lot, you know, nearly kill myself in gymnastics … I almost broke my back last year … Kris once said that she should get a pager so that I could call her whenever I needed to be healed again, but that was just stupid because she'd never find me, even if I did get a message through, and she'd have to call my mobile anyway, and it would be easier if I just called her mobile in the first place. Mobile phones are so much better than pagers, they give you so much more information-"

Draco looked Tanya in the eye, "Tanya, you're babbling," he told her, and she paused to take the first breath she had since she'd started babbling.

"I know," Tanya replied. Draco sighed and put a hand on her wrist.

"Heal," he said, and felt the magic jump to do his bidding.

Tanya didn't even make a sound as the magic soothed her pain, and she stood up quickly as Draco started walking immediately after Healing her.

Saul and Leon shook their heads and followed. Tanya hadn't mentioned to Draco that she was claustrophobic, and until she did, they wouldn't say anything.

Not too much longer, they reached what had to be the end of the maze. They could see where the steps that would lead them up to the next level where supposed to, there was marks on the wall that showed that there were stairs, but they couldn't _see_ the stairs themselves. Draco groaned, "What now?" he asked, "I mean, we're obviously in the right place, but there's something that we're missing."

Tanya had wandered a little way away from her companions, and was examining some hieroglyphs on the wall. This room was far more open than the corridors of the maze where, and she was relaxing a little, though she knew that soon it would seem to shrink in on her.

Walking along the wall, her fingers trailing across the rows of hieroglyphs, when suddenly she hit something and tumbled over sideways. Everyone spun around to look at her as she yelped in surprise. "NOT AGAIN!" Draco screamed, finally losing the plot completely.

Before he could do any more than take a couple of steps in Tanya's direction, there was a loud groaning sound, and the wall flipped up and out of the way to reveal a set of stairs, which were leading up. Draco looked at the stairs, then at Tanya lying on the ground, smiling and trying to look cute, in hopes that he wouldn't hurt her.

"This has to be a trick," he said, "But I guess we may as well try it …" Tanya stood up and they moved toward the stairs.

* * *

"Lumos" came Hermione's voice from the semi-darkness somewhere to Justine's left. She looked around to see that the cave was deep, falling into darkness near the back wall and about twelve feet wide. In the Centre of the room Justine saw what appeared to be four red packs. She calmly walked over to them and held the first one up to her also now glowing hand and read from the tab on the front of the bag 'Hermione Granger'.

"Well Hermione this is your pack, Harry, Ax," she said as she threw everyone their respective packs.

Opening hers she found a white snow jacket and thermos full of what smelt like hot chocolate. She also found a pair of thick socks and hiking boots, a map, some freeze dried food, an apple, and a silver compact heat blanket. "Oh thank god." She muttered as she pulled on the jacket and snuggled down into its fuzzy lining. She smiled and looked around at the group. "Very nice."

"Well," said Ax from where he was studying the map. This thing does not have the bloody Portkey marked, all it says is that it's a kilometre away."

"So we need to go one kilometre from the cave in every direction while we have mr growly Yeti stalking us?" Justine gasped.

"I don't think that's too wise…" Hermione worried.

"Don't worry girls, we can handle it, my main concern is that we need to show intuition over magic, it's the point of our quest, and as such I don't think anything's going to come to us too easily." Ax was now rummaging through his pack, "I got a lighter in my front pocket, Justine what do you have?"

Justine looked down at her pack and undid the front pocket. Inside she found a compass and she held it up. Hermione found a page form the book 'magical creatures and where to find them', entailing the yeti and it's weaknesses and strengths. Harry found a first aid kit, most of which he could use from his days as a Muggle, but most of which Justine and Ax found delightfully funny.

"So we need a plan." Harry said as he found his voice, standing near the faintly electric entrance to the cave. "We need one fast too, it looks like we're going to get some sort of storm, and I don't fancy our chances of finding this stupid Portkey in the dark."

"Well, we obviously have to protect the campsite," Ax remarked, "So whatever happens, _someone_ has to stay here, and it would be best if there were two people, which would mean that if one person got hurt, there'd be someone to help out."

"And that would mean that two people are out searching for the Portkey at any one time," Harry agreed, "So there'd always be someone to watch the other's back. If we use the map, we can find something that's a kilometre away from here and get out there, then try and move in a circle around the camp."

Ax nodded. "I think for the first part of this, you and me should go out on the trek, and leave the girls here to take care of the camp."

"But, what about the yeti?" Hermione said nervously.

"If we build a fire toward the front of the cave, then the yeti won't come near us," Justine pointed out. "They don't like fire, ergo we need big fire, and it won't come near us!"

"We have to find dry wood first," Harry pointed out, "Since there isn't any here."

"Why not just use magic?" Justine demanded.

"Justine, the way this is supposed to work is that you rely on magic as little as possible," Ax reminded her. "Therefore, we need to go and find wood, if we want to get good marks."

"Fine," Justine muttered, outvoted. "Should someone stay back and watch the cave, just in case? While everyone else is looking for fire wood?"

"Probably, why, do you want to?" Hermione asked.

"No, I was thinking you probably should. I'm a Magai, I _can_ defend myself against a yeti without magic and without risk if needs be," Justine replied, "Harry's a Magai too, and Ax is a sword mage. We should go and get fire, and you should probably stay here and guard the camp."

Hermione looked about to protest at being given the boring, if less dangerous, job, but Ax and Harry agreed with Justine's reasoning, and she was stuck at the camp.

Out in the snow, Justine immediately started wishing that she'd let Hermione come instead, because it was cold and the yeti was too close to comfort. With a slight shrug, she used her powers to warm herself and to create a ball of fire that hovered at her shoulder, ready for her to point toward the yeti, if it came any closer. That done, she started hunting for dry wood.

"Dammit, how are we supposed to find _dry_ wood in the bloody snow?" she asked herself, then rolled her eyes at her own stupidity and headed for the denser trees, keeping a very close ear on any noises that were nearby, because the yeti was somewhere in the trees.

* * *

Once they reached the top of the stairs, Draco glared at Tanya, "That was just stupid, dumb luck," he told her.

"Probably," she agreed, decidedly more cheerful as she examined this room. It was a _hell _of a lot bigger than the room they'd just come from, and stacked with piles of treasure all over the place. "Cool."

"Wonder what we have to do here?" Draco murmured, and everyone shrugged. "Well, we aren't going to find out standing here, so we may as well walk to the door and see what happens." They could see the door, on the far side of the room. Midway up from the floor was a shelf that ran across the wall until it hit the corner.

"There's a lot of things that could be hiding in that treasure," Leon remarked. "We should stick pretty close together, I think. Just in case."

The other three nodded in agreement, and, in a bunched up group, they made their way across the chamber, tripping over bits of treasure and carefully making their way around larger obstacles, like golden chests.

Once they reached the door, they looked back across the chamber in confusion. "Nothing happened," Tanya remarked. "Wonder if it's activated by a tripwire too?"

Saul was examining the door, and the shelf that was, for him, at chest height. Now that they were closer, they could see that hieroglyphs lined the door, and that there were six circular indents on the shelf, three to each side of the door. Each had a single hieroglyph beside it.

"If it is, _don't find it_," Draco told her, scowling.

Tanya laughed softly, "Well, I'll try not to. But if we need to find a tripwire to get through _this_ door, just let me go exploring – I'm sure I'll fall over it eventually!"

"We won't need a tripwire," Saul announced suddenly, and everyone turned to look at him. "I've been decoding the door," he said, pointing to it. "It says something along the lines of we have to find the statues of the gods and place them on the shelf … It's kind of hard, decoding hieroglyphs, because the have same symbol for pretty much every vowel."

"What gods do we need to find?" Tanya asked – she'd done a bit of work on Egypt when she was in Primary School, and Saul had often shown her things that he'd done, because none of his other friends would just sit and listen to him going on about Egypt.

"We need Ra, Isis, Anubis, Horus, Hathor, and Osiris," Saul replied, "And we have to put them in their places – they're marked on the shelf."

"We'll let you do the positioning," Draco told him. "Do you know what the statues will look like? Unlike you two, I didn't spend my time researching ancient peasants."

Saul looked at him, "Calm down, Blondie," he told him. "I'll draw you a picture."

"A picture? Isn't that significantly different to a statue?" Draco demanded.

"Each of the gods has a particular image, when in statue form, and each has definitive characteristics. You'll be able to find them from a picture, especially if it's drawn by someone who knows what he's looking for. Tanya, you remember the gods, don't you?"

"I think so," Tanya replied cheerfully. "Anyway, I can just look for statues, I'll know the gods when I see them."

"Off you go then," Saul smiled at her, and she nodded, heading off.

"Is it really smart to let her go off on her own?" Draco asked. "She didn't do too well downstairs."

"She'll be fine now," Saul replied, and started drawing a picture on the ground.

"You know, why don't we just find statues, and whenever we find one, we can call you or Tanya and find out if it's one of the one's we need?" Leon asked. "That would be easier than trying to remember different pictures."

Saul shrugged, "Works for me – how about you Draco?"

"Fine," Draco replied, and the three of them set off after Tanya, picking their way through the piles of treasure, searching for anything that resembled a statue. By the light of their wands, it wasn't very easy to see much.

"Draco!" Tanya called from a little way ahead of the boys, and when they looked up, she had turned to face them, perching on top of a stone chest.

"What?" Draco called back.

"Justine has a trick that she does sometimes on our camping trips. She can make the entire area light up like day – can you?" Tanya asked, "There just isn't enough light to see what we need to do."

Draco frowned. "I've never done something like that before, but I guess I could try," he replied. A moment later, the chamber was filled with pale blue light. "Well, it's light," Draco said, when Saul and Leon looked at him. "I'll see if I can change the colour."

He concentrated for a moment, then the blue became yellow-white and the entire chamber was completely revealed. "Thanks!" Tanya called, and went back to looking for statues.

Ten minutes later, no one had found anything, and everyone was starting to get a little frustrated. There was so much _stuff_ in here! How were they supposed find six statues in the middle of this?

"Hey! I think I've found Ra!" Tanya yelled suddenly, excited. "Pretty boy with sun disk behind his head and a scarab at his feet – that's Ra, isn't it?"

"Yup," Saul replied. "Bring it over here and show me, just to make sure."

Tanya came over to Saul, holding a foot tall statue made from gold. "That's Ra alright," Saul agreed. "Take it over and put it by the door, would you?"

"Sure," Tanya replied, and headed off while the boys returned to their searching.

An hour and a half later, they'd found Osiris, Horus, Isis, and Hathor, but Anubis was nowhere in sight. "This is getting frustrating," Leon remarked, sounding rather annoyed. "Why couldn't the Egyptians make things _easy_?"

"Because that belittles the point of having curses in the first place," Saul said patiently.

"It wasn't the Egyptians anyway, it was Terry," Draco pointed out.

"He is _so_ going down," Leon snapped.

Suddenly Tanya tripped and fell over something, banging her head against a golden chest.

"Tanya!" Saul and Leon yelled as one.

Draco, who wasn't very far away from where Tanya had fallen, jumped over the chest and knelt beside Tanya, "She's bleeding," he called to the other two.

"She has a name," Tanya told him, "And she has also found Anubis!"

"And she is now going to stop referring to herself in third person, because I need to have her focus while I heal her."

Tanya giggled. "Look, I'm sorry about talking about Justine before. Justine said I wasn't supposed to talk about Justine, but then something happened and I forgot and it just slipped out and I said Justine and it all went on from there and-"

Saul came up behind her and put a hand over her mouth. "You're babbling again," he pointed out.

Draco went still at the mention of Justine, then shook himself, putting her out of his mind, and healed a long gash across Tanya's forehead.

"Thanks," Tanya said, getting to her feet and cradling a jackal headed statue in her hands. "And now we have Anubis!"

"What was he the god of?" Draco asked.

"Embalming and death," Saul replied.

"Seems to fit _her_ horse pretty well. Did she choose it especially?" Draco asked.

"No, they couldn't name him, and I was walking by and said they should call it Anubis – then it wouldn't answer to anything else. Justine's the only one who gets away with calling him Nubie though," Saul replied cheerfully.

"You named your friends horse after the god of death?" Leon asked.

"Hey, it had just taken out seven stable hands for suggesting names it didn't like – I thought it might be appropriate," Saul replied, as they reached the door with the last statue.

Saul took the statue of Ra, and placed it on the far left of the door, where there was a picture of the Eye of Ra, then Isis, who took the form of a beautiful woman with sparrow hawk wings extending from her back and placed it beside Ra, followed by Osiris, who was made of black stone and had a fancy head-dress. On the other side of the door, Hathor was a woman holding a ceremonial ankh, and she was followed by Horus, the falcon headed god, and last, but not least, was Anubis.

"Weird," Tanya remarked, "That's the order that we found the statues in!"

"Why isn't the door opening?" Draco asked. "Do we need to do something else?"

"It doesn't say anything else," Saul replied, but examined the hieroglyphs again anyway. "Oh yes it does – it says that the door will never open to allow the treasure to pass through."

He'd been holding a piece of leather that he'd found wrapped around one of the statues, and quickly dropped it. The moment that he did, the door swung open, revealing steps up to the next level.

* * *

"What's that?" Harry asked, pointing in the snow. There was something _bright red_ sitting on a fallen tree. "Could that be the Portkey?"

He and Ax walked over to it, tired after tramping through the snow for most of the day in a so far hopeless search for the Portkey home. Ax approached the tree trunk and looked at the object sitting on it. "Looks like it to me," he replied cheerfully, lifting the stone, which had been painted fluro red.

"The note said that the Portkey would only activate if it remained on the chosen site," Harry pointed out.

"Well, we'd better mark the tree and bury this, just in case the yeti tries to steal the stone, which wouldn't be a good thing, considering. Then, just in case, we'll finish the circuit and make sure that there isn't anything else that could be the Portkey," Ax decided.

"Probably a good idea. It's still maybe an hour and a half until sundown, and we're pretty close to the starting point now," Harry agreed, "Why didn't we come this way, instead of going toward East? By the compass, we're at bloody West-North-West now!"

Ax sighed, "Well, if we'd gone the other way, the stupid Portkey would probably be at East-North-East," he remarked, and used his sword to cut a large 'X' in the fallen tree, while Harry buried what they were pretty sure was the Portkey in the snow beside the trunk. That done, they stood and headed off.

Just before the sun went down, they reached the starting point, and, since they hadn't found anything more likely, decided that the red stone must be the Portkey, and turned to head for the camp again.

"Man, I'm _starving_," Ax said.

"I wish I had a muffin," Harry agreed. "Narcissa makes the best muffins."

"You haven't been in heaven till you've eaten one of Gwen's cupcakes," Ax argued. "I'd rather have a cupcake than a muffin."

"Gwen?" Harry arched an eyebrow.

"Tegan's mum," Ax replied. "She adopted me, and gives me cupcakes every time I go over there. Cupcakes are divine."

"Muffins are better, they have fruit in them," Harry said.

"No way, cupcakes have icing, and sometimes, when she's in a really good mood, she puts jam and cream in the middle of the. Man, that's a good cupcake."

"You've got me there," Harry admitted.

"What's that?" Ax asked, tilting his head slightly and looking around locate where a noise had come from.

"It's the yeti," Harry said, spotting a patch of moving white fur.

"Run," Ax resolved, "Hopefully we can make it to the cave before we have to try and fight it – I don't fancy our chances against a yeti, if we aren't supposed to use much magic."

Harry nodded, and they bolted in the direction that the cave _should_ be in. Not much later, they could hear the crackling of a fire through the trees, and the sound of a fairly cheerful conversation. Suddenly they burst through the trees and there was the cave ahead of them, a fire blazing not too far past the entrance.

Hermione and Justine were sitting on the other side of the fire, and when Harry walked in, Hermione threw herself at him, babbling about how she was so glad that he was alright and telling him not to scare her by running off and not saying anything again.

"Don't I get a hug?" Ax asked, coming to start beside Justine, "No 'hi Ax, I'm glad you're alright'?"

Justine stuck her nose in the air and turned away from him, "I'm not talking to you, you used me as a _diversion_."

"We found the Portkey," Ax told her, hoping that she'd get over it soon.

"A _diversion_," Justine repeated.

"We needed to get away from the yeti without it following us, and we'd never have left if we didn't think that you could take care of yourself."

Justine didn't even look at him that time.

"We didn't mean to stay out all day, but things got away on us, and like I said, we found the Portkey."

Still no response.

"I found you a present," Ax tried the easiest way of getting Justine to pay attention to you.

She spun around, her face lighting up at the prospect of a gift.

Ax knew he had to think fast, otherwise, she'd be ignoring him for even longer than she would have if he hadn't said anything. "It's a … hug! C'mere!" he bounded over and pulled her into a tight embrace, and Justine hugged him back before she even thought about it.

When he pulled away, she gave him a cool look, "You're slipping," she told him, and he shrugged. At least she was talking to him again.

* * *

"I don't like the sound of this," Leon remarked. They were standing in front of a door which would lead them into the next area. From inside there was a sound of shuffling feet and things banging into the wall. "Sounds like there's something alive in there."

"Mummies maybe," Tanya said, looking uneasily around the walls that enclosed the stairway.

"Could be," Saul agreed.

"Well, we aren't going to get to the Portkey standing here all day," Draco said calmly, "If there's mummies, we know how to handle them. Tanya, you stay back, keep as close to the door as possible. Leon, you and I both have swords, so we'll attack separately, and Saul, you try and distract them a little so that they don't corner anyone."

Everyone nodded. Because she didn't know how big the next room would be, Tanya didn't offer the suggestion that she could help, because if the room was small, she'd just panic and let everyone down. She wished she wasn't claustrophobic, but she was, and she couldn't help that right now.

Draco pushed the door open and they all quickly entered the room. It wasn't as small as Tanya had feared it might be, but it wasn't nearly big enough for comfort. Inside, there were four mummies coming straight for the door. "Tanya, against the wall, now," Draco said, and she stepped back obediently.

Draco beheaded the nearest mummy quickly after drawing his sword, and Leon did the same. As the mummies fell to the ground and turned to dust, golden keys clattered across the ground. Tanya slipped away from the wall and grabbed them both. The other two mummies sudden started moving faster, and both of them were boxing in on Leon.

They ignored the stones that Saul threw at them, even ignored it when he came close enough to kick at them. They had both picked up shields and were using them to block Leon's blows as the boy tried to deal with them.

Draco came rushing in to try and do something, but the moment he got near enough, the mummies went back to back, so that one was facing Leon and the other was facing Draco. Each of them reached out to the wall, where huge swords were hanging, and took a sword down.

Tanya gave a soft whimper of fear – her friends were trapped and she was doing _nothing_! She looked around, hoping to find a weapon, but the only weapons she could see where two swords, the like of which of the two mummies were holding, on her side of the wall. The blades were nearly as long as she was tall, so there was no way she could use them for a weapon.

"Saul!" she called to him, because he'd been forced to move away from the fight, since he was unable to actually do anything. He looked over at her, "Can you pick up those swords?" she asked, pointing to the other two swords.

Saul went over to them, and, with some difficulty, got one of them off the wall, staggering slightly under it's weight. "I don't think I stand much of a chance of doing anything fancy with this … not that Ax has been able to teach me much."

"As Kris said at the Hunt Feast – you stick the pointy end in the other man, or in this case, mummy," Tanya told him. "I wouldn't stand a chance at doing anything, but maybe you can do enough to make a difference! Please hurry, Leon's getting awfully close to that corner!"

Saul nodded in agreement. He couldn't leave his team mates to their doom. Hefting the sword, he rushed at the mummy that was attacking Draco and thrust the sword in under it's elbow. It turned to dust and a third key appeared, just as Leon threw himself sideways onto the floor, rolling on his shoulder out of the way of the mummy, which turned to follow him.

On his feet again, Leon lashed out with his sword, and managed to snap the leather band that had attached the shield to the mummies arm. "All you have to do is get your sword into the mummy, and it'll turn to dust," Saul called to him, and Leon nodded. It still wouldn't be easy – the mummy was moving even faster now, and Leon had to think a lot about the huge sword that mummy was trying to kill him with.

"You guys stay back, I don't want you to get hurt as well," Leon called to them, before focusing his whole attention on the mummy. "Try the other keys, see if you can get out of here while I distract this fellow."

Saul, Draco and Tanya made their way to the door into the next room, holding the three keys they'd managed to collect so far, while Leon danced around the mummy, sword flicking this way and that as he desperately tried to keep the mummy's own sword from finding its mark, and at the same time trying to pierce the mummy.

"These keys don't work," Saul said, after they'd tried each of them. "It must be the key that the other mummy has."

Leon was obviously beginning to tire now, and was spending all his energy on keeping the mummy away from him, rather than actually trying to hurt the mummy. "Leon, that mummy has the key we need," Tanya called to him, and they saw the expression on Leon's face suddenly change, from one calm determination to that of one who knows what he has to do … whatever the consequences.

The next time the mummy swung at him, Leon half turned his body, thrusting his own sword toward the mummy's chest, his body in the way of it's swing, so it couldn't defend itself in time. Tanya screamed as the mummies sword bit into the flesh of Leon's arm, even as Leon's sword found its mark.

The mummy turned to dust, and a key clattered across the floor, and the giant sword fell away from Leon, also hitting the ground with a clang, but no one was paying attention to it, as Draco leaped to Leon's side and caught the Hufflepuff boy as he fell, "_Heal_," Draco whispered, and the magic raced to do his bidding.

The wound healed, but blood covered most of Leon's arm and chest. Leon smiled, "Well, at least Tanya's not the only one who's gotten hurt now," he said, getting unsteadily to his feet and shaking his head a little. Tanya came over to him, slipping an arm around his waist.

"You scared me," she told him.

"I scared myself," Leon replied, "But it was the only way I could have gotten past that mummy. Draco, thank you," he continued, turning to the Slytherin boy.

"Do you feel alright?" Saul asked.

"I feel fine. At least now I feel like I've managed to _do_ something, instead of letting Draco handle everything," Leon grinned at them. "Let's move on, shall we?"

* * *

Night was approaching in the Australian Outback, and Tegan, having spent the day getting through one of the Australian Dragon Reserves, which had been easy for her, but not in the least bit easy for Ron. The little bastard had driven Justine away from the one man she'd ever love! He had _so_ gone down today.

First there'd been the time when she'd _accidentally_ closed the door on the Wentworth dragon breeding programme enclose … pretending not to realise that Ron was still inside. A mother Wentworth dragon standing guard over her eggs was _not_ happy to find a human boy nearby.

The only reason Tegan had let him out was because she didn't want to upset the dragons too much – they didn't deserve to be worried by the likes of Ron Weasley.

Her wish to see Ron dead had not been helped by the fact that he had been flirting with her _all day_, rather than paying attention to what she was telling the rest of the group about dragons. And he was wondering why she was trying to kill him … idiot.

"OK, it's gonna start getting cold soon, so we want to find a place to stay the night, and set up a fire before night hits us," Tegan said cheerfully, "Out here in the desert, it can hit minus twenty pretty easily. Remember – the hotter the day, the colder the night."

"Once we get a fire started, any other groups in the area will probably see it and join us," Adam took over, "We'll show you how to cook your food when most of the people have arrived, that way we won't have to keep repeating ourselves."

Susan Bones and Ron just nodded – they were more than happy to let the two Australians show them how to do everything … provided that Tegan didn't accidentally teach Ron the wrong way.

Tegan finally chose a site for them to camp on, though no one was sure why she had chosen this site, as opposed to several that Ron, or Adam had pointed at, all of which seemed to be pretty much the same as the one that she had chosen.

Adam and Tegan demonstrated how to light a fire, and then Tegan banished Ron to try and make his own a few metres from the one that she claimed was 'hers and Adam's'.

By the time full dark had fallen, three more groups had joined theirs, and Tegan stood up and called everyone to her fire. Once she had everyone's eyes on her, she held up a can of bake beans, which everyone had found in their packs when they arrived. "This," she said, shaking it a little, "Is baked beans. Tucker … Food, in your words. To cook your beans, chuck it in the fire and wait for it to go BOOM!" she yelled the last word, making everyone jump.

"It'll explode outward and form a nice little bowl, though it might be a little hot … if so, your problem, not mine," she finished, and tossed the can over her shoulder into the flames, "Should take about ten minutes, and don't worry, not many of the beans will escape in the exploding process."

* * *

Tanya looked around the room they now found themselves in, and felt blind panic returning. The room was tiny! It looked to be maybe five paces across and on the other side of the chamber was a door with a box divided into sixteen squares. "What's that?" she asked, pointing.

They walked across the chamber to the door. It was one of those box puzzles that had all but one of the pieces, and you had to try and make the picture by moving the pieces around, one piece at a time.

Draco stepped forward, as did Saul, to try and make it work, but Tanya pushed them both back. "It's my turn," she told them. "I had one of these things when I was little, and I was rather good at it."

Half of a frustrating hour later, she finally managed to get the picture right and the door opened. Immediately Tanya bolted into the next room, which was a lot bigger than this one was. Saul, Leon and Draco started after her, but before Tanya had gotten three steps forward, she was suddenly jerked back, and they all found themselves back in the room, the door closed and the puzzle restarted … only it had a different, more intricate picture now.

"Tanya! What did you do?" Draco yelled.

Tanya glared at the door. "I don't know," she replied. "Oh well, I'll get the puzzle eventually. Let me think."

Three quarters of an hour later, she got the door open again, but when she bolted, the same thing happened, and the puzzle got even more intricate. "I can do it!" She said, "But I wonder why we keep getting pulled back?"

"Next time you get the door open, don't go running straight through. Wait for us," Draco told her, sounding more than a little irritable now. "Why don't you let me do this?"

"No! I can do it!" she replied, and started doing the puzzle yet again.

The next time she opened the door – no one bothered to keep track of how long it took her that time, agreeing later that it had been 'too long' and leaving it at that – she took a half step forward, but tripped over a step that the door had been resting on, and fell down, through the door. The moment her hands touched the ground, they were yanked back into the chamber, yet again.

"OK Tanya, this time _I'm_ doing it," Draco told her.

"Fine," Tanya sulked, and went to stand just behind Saul and Leon while Draco worked out the puzzle in only ten minutes. Since they'd told her to stay behind, because she kept closing the door, Tanya forced herself, with some considerable difficulty, not to go racing into the next room.

Suddenly the door was closed again, and the three boys were in front of her again. "Tanya!" Draco yelled.

"You said to stay back," Tanya said in evident confusion. "So I did."

Draco put a hand to his forehead, "We have to go through the door at the same time," he told her with a sigh. "Right, I'm going to do the puzzle again, and this time you walk _with_ us."

Tanya nodded, and Draco went back to the door.

This time, when he finished it and the door opened, Draco grabbed Tanya and made sure that they walked through the door at the same time, into the next chamber. This chamber was as bare as the last one had been, though it was somewhat bigger than the last one. The walls were covered with hieroglyphs, but Saul couldn't make any sense of them when he went over to the walls to examine them.

Because they didn't understand the hieroglyphs at all, Tanya, Draco and Leon went to sit on the floor near the door and let Saul concentrate. "He's been _sensible_ all day," Draco remarked, looking at Saul as the McEwan boy examined the walls. "Isn't he usually the idiot?"

"He's McEwan," Tanya replied, "He's pretty much the most intelligent person in our entire year – he got one hundred percent in all but two of his OWLs two years ago and he gets one hundred percent on just about every test we ever have to sit … he just likes being an idiot and hiding the fact that he's smart."

"Why?" Draco asked.

"Do you really want to have a male Hermione?" Tanya asked. She didn't know the Hogwarts Head Girl very well, but she'd heard quite a bit about her, and thought that she sounded a lot like Saul gone wrong. "I think it's mainly because most of his friends are footy-heads who laugh at him when he acts at all intelligent."

Draco just shook his head, not understand why anyone _want_ to act stupid, if they had a choice in the matter … and then he remembered what Seamus had told him – sometimes you just have to act like a kid, it's good for you.

"Wonder what this is?" Saul murmured aloud, seeing a small circle in the very centre of the room, it was raised a little from the rest of the floor. Standing on this, he looked around the walls again, and immediately realised that several of the hieroglyphs on the walls went blue when he stood here.

He turned around, and then around again, looking at the markings and trying to decide what order that they should be read in.

"The door you seek…" he murmured, "Through which to pass … is not locked … just heavy. It says the door is heavy – well, that's easy enough I suppose. Let's go push it!"

He bounded over to join them at the door, and the other three stood up and put their shoulders to the door, pushing against it with all the strength they could muster. Slowly, it began to move, centimetre by painful centimetre. Finally it was open enough for them to slip through, and into the next room.

On the wall, there was a set of hieroglyphs, but they were only in one place, and there was no other marking anywhere in the room. "Saul?" everyone turned to him.

Saul sighed and went to stand by the wall. "Can someone write this down as I translate?" he asked, and Draco took out a piece of paper and Tanya handed him a pen from her pocket, showing him how to use it.

"_This thing all things devours_

_Birds, Beasts, Trees and flowers_

_Gnaws iron, bites steel_

_And grinds hard bones to meal_

_Slays kings and ruins town_

_And beats high mountain down."_

Saul translated slowly, and before he could even go back to look over what he'd written and solve the riddle, Draco said, "Time."

"What?"

"Time, that's the answer," Draco replied. Everyone looked at him. "What? Hermione gave Harry some Muggle book called the Hobbit, and he made me read it … this was one of the riddles from that."

"How did a riddle from the Hobbit get into an ancient Egyptian pyramid?" Leon demanded.

"Something to do with Terry, I'm sure," Draco replied, and they walked into the next room. Saul, in the lead, jumped back a little way when he stepped into a pool of water.

"What?" Draco asked.

"Can you light this place up?" Saul asked, "I just stepped into water, and I don't know how deep it is."

A moment later the chamber was filled with light and they could see that there was a labyrinth of water filling the chamber. "What's this supposed to be?" Draco wondered.

"Snake!" Leon yelled, pointing. Indeed, winding it's way through the tunnels of water was a rather large water snake. "That's a Coral Snake! They're really poisonous."

"It's pretty," Tanya remarked, looking under Draco's arm at the scarlet and yellow snake that was winding its way towards them.

"Keep back," the boys told her, pushing her back toward the last chamber, even though the door had already closed behind them, trying to get her out of the way of the snake. Ignoring Tanya's protests, they started discussing what they might have to do with the snake.

Finally, Saul find some hieroglyphs that said that they had to milk the snake and throw the venom at the door to advance to the next section. "How the hell are we supposed to milk a bloody coral snake?" Leon demanded. "Someone would have to catch it for a start, and does anyone here _know_ how to milk a snake?"

Tanya suddenly walked over to them, holding something in her hands. "Tanya, get out of the way and let us think," Draco told her. Tanya rolled her eyes and thrust a tube into Draco's hands.

"Hold that," she told him, "And don't come too close to me."

In her other hand, they realised that she was holding a pronged staff. "What are you doing?" Draco demanded.

"Catching a snake," Tanya replied, pacing across the dry parts of the maze, following the snake. When she caught up with it, she swiftly thrust the staff down, catching the snake neatly behind the neck, then reaching down calmly as the creature thrashed around, tyring to escape.

Slowly, she slipped her hands around the creatures neck, while the three boys watched in amazement. Then she let the pronged staff fall, and used her other hand to catch the snake just before the end of the tail so that it couldn't escape. It writhed, twisting it's body into shapes to try and make Tanya let go, but she wasn't about to let it, carrying it calmly back over to the three boys.

"Draco, I'm about to make the snake's jaws open, when they're fully open, put the tube between it's jaws and hold on tight. I'll let the snake bite, and keep up the pressure on it's teeth so that the poison keeps coming." Looking at the tube that she'd given him, Draco realised that it had a tight covering over the top, which the snake's teeth would pierce when it bit down.

Amazed that someone could be so calm while holding a snake as poisonous as the one that Tanya was, Draco obeyed, and soon they had a tube full of poison. The moment the tube was full, the snake shuddered, and turned to pale stone, and the water on the ground also turned to stone, leaving the chamber flat and totally bare.

Tanya carefully extracted the stone teeth from the top of the tube and put it down in a corner.

"So, you overcame your claustrophobia to pick up one of the most poisonous snakes in the world," Saul remarked, "Well done."

"So _that's_ why you've been behaving weirdly all day!" Draco said, with an expression of clarity taking over his features. "You should have said something!"

Tanya blinked at him. "I didn't realise you didn't know," she told him. "Saul and Leon both do, so they've been trying to keep me calm all day – I guess I just thought that you would know … not that I was thinking much about anything except these walls being so close together," she looked warily around the room.

"We thought that you hadn't told him because you didn't want him to know," Leon told Tanya with a laugh, "So we didn't tell him anything for fear of making you angry."

Everyone shook their heads, laughing quietly. "Well, now I realise why you were so panicky. Sorry about losing my temper," Draco told Tanya.

Tanya smiled at him. "Don't worry, I don't mind. I probably deserved it, even if I am claustrophobic, I've been pretty hopeless all day."

"You weren't at all hopeless with that snake," Draco pointed out.

"I like snakes," Tanya replied, shrugging. "I've never been scared of _them_, and one of my carers taught me how to milk them once, and how to catch them so that I could take anything poisonous outside the house when she wasn't around," then she yawned widely.

"Maybe we should stop and have something to eat, then sleep for a little while before we tackle whatever comes next," Saul suggested. "Whatever comes next, we'll be able to face it much easier if we aren't tired."

Everyone nodded in agreement and they set up a sort of camp in the middle of the room. "It's about nine thirty at night, Hogwarts time, so we're well overdue for a sleep. Something big is probably coming next, so we may as well get as much sleep as possible," Draco remarked, checking his watch. "If we take two hour watches, we should get a pretty good sleep."

"Why watches?" Tanya asked, "There isn't anything nasty in this room, we're safe here."

"I don't trust this place," Draco replied. "We sleep in watches, just in case."

After seven hours of sleep, they were all awake, had something more to eat, and then Tanya did the honours and threw the poison at the wall, revealing a set of stairs.

"And up we go," she remarked, "Hopefully no small spaces up here."

Everyone smiled slightly at that, and they headed up the stairs.

When they reached the next level, the door was already open and waiting for them. This level was a single room, rather like the treasure level, and was a long corridor, lined with pedestals on either side. Every second pedestal had a very life like stone monkey perched on it. There six monkey statues.

"I see the door," Saul remarked, nodding toward the other side of the chamber, "But I don't see any obstacles."

"Let's go then," Tanya said. "The obstacles will come when they come."

They started down the corridor, looking around for any trace of danger, but it didn't come until they past the second set of monkey statues.

Tanya was looking straight at the statue, when suddenly it _moved_.

"Guys," she whispered, and pointed to the monkey, which had just jumped to the ground and was coming towards them.

"Shit."

* * *

_Well that's chapter thirteen, hope you all enjoyed! I pronised cookies to all those who reviewed! (pulls out huge basket of magical cookies that go to the flavour of the person who is eating them favours) OK!_

**_Taxzombie_ **- Man, your review was inspirational, look at the length of this one! (hands the cookie) im a daimond amoungst toadstools, thats so sweet, i hope you catch the chapters up soon! thanyou for your review!

_**Queenie**_ - MATE! (gives cookie) your a legend! (fends off rubber chicken!) well i suppose you wont like this one then...Cliffies are good, they keep yáll coming on back!

**_Bladeknight _**- (gives him massive cookie) yes you did see the fraft, but ichanged it (smug look) thanks for reviewing hun!

**_goDDark_** - thanks for reading and reviewing (gives her a tube of whipped cream and a cookie) We missed you on gaia, but it was great that you reviewed, and twice! legendary stuff, i officially dub the with an OoK (order of Kalliax) YOU ROCK!

**_Dark672 -_ ok, i'll say this now, i like you ok? dont get upset at me **First off, this story is not your work, and Wolfmoon and i have written it H/Hr for our own resons. Dont get me wrong, the pairning annoys the hell outta me, but when you continue to be upset no matter how much we reassure you that they will break up soon it leads me to belive you dont even read my responses to your reviews, which is depressing cause i love responding. Its one of my favourite jobs. I happen think this story is really good.I can understand the Jacquething.Jacque was my best frind in High school, short for jacqueline, she spelt it that way, but pronounced it Ja-Key. Kallaix is an elitist schhol, we only take the best student by invitation, thus we have to be good, but we havnt won everything, Hermione trumps us in the Conferance for points'everytime, and we havnt played Hopgwarts in quidditch, theyre strong point yet. We might win that, were good quidditch players, but if we do SO WHAT! there are tons of other things for people to beat us at! now all the prelims are out of the way we get up to FINALS! when it gets tough. I like you Dark, you speak up and make me rethink the way i write the story, but stop repeating yourself, i do listen to you. (gives three cookies)

**_Murdrax_** - Yeah (hands cookie over) The warewolf scene was classic :) thanks for R+R! see you soon!

_**Darcy**_ - (holds out big cookie) Ron was naughty! Thanks for reading!

_So i say again - Read and review you legendary people, and i will give you candy, yes CANDY! i also have the actual "teen witch weekly article"i wrote it for all interested, say so in your review and i'll send you a link:) - Princess_


	14. Murderous Intent

_Welcome to the newest chapter of KALLAIX! Molfmoon is currently in ireland, so all your reveiws will bi going bi-continental! How cool is that! This chapter goes to the amazing Courtni, aka - Ceeliegh. Cause she's from TEXAS! and cause her review rocked my liddle Aussie socks!

* * *

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Chapter Fourteen: **Murderous Intent**

"BLOODY MONKEYS!" Tanya screamed. For the past five minutes, the four of them had been standing back to back in a circle, struggling to keep the monkeys back from them. Draco had quickly realised, when he chopped one of their heads off, that they'd regain a head and keep coming.

Each of the monkeys had a dagger and a small shield, but no one had let them close enough to see just how sharp the daggers were – there'd been a few close calls though.

"We have to split up," Draco said, "We need to separate the monkeys a bit! This just not working!"

Everyone nodded, "Tanya, you're with me," Draco told her, and she nodded. The two of them moved toward the other end of the chamber, the end that would get them out, while Saul and Leon stayed pretty much where they had been.

Draco was trying to keep all of the monkeys away from Tanya, who was letting him at the moment, as she watched the monkeys, searching for their weak points, and ways to attack them without getting hurt herself.

When three monkeys attacked Draco at once, coming from three different sides, the Slytherin boy obviously wouldn't be able to deal with it. Tanya did a half turn to gain momentum, and let out a powerful flying kick, her foot striking one of the monkeys in the leg and making it turn in mid air, distracting it for long enough to let Draco scare the other two off.

"Nice kick," he said, with a new respect for Tanya.

"Thanks," she replied, and went back to searching for a weapon that she could use to some advantage – kicking would just make her feet hurt after awhile. "I think the other two are having some difficulty," she added.

Saul was not coping with the monkeys. He had no weapon to use against them, and had to let Leon do most of the actual work at the moment. He'd been the brains behind their operation, but now it was time for the fighters to take over. "I'm going to help them," Tanya said, and before Draco could tell her not to go, she was running to her two friends.

She took out the monkey that was attacking Saul with a swift sharp kick, and, as she turned to let the momentum fall away, she snatched a short, thin sword from the wall and took off a monkeys head with a single powerful swing. "Saul, there's weapons on the wall, see what you can do to find one that suits," she told him, "I have to go and help Draco!"

She bounded back over to Draco and grinned at him, "I found a sword," she told him, "One that _isn't_ too big for me!"

"You know how to use a _sword_?" Draco demanded.

"Yeah!" Tanya replied boisterously, hacking at another monkey, "And this room is nice and big!"

"What the! Why didn't you tell us that before?"

"Because you looked like you needed to be manly and have a maiden in distress to protect. Besides, those rooms were small," Tanya replied cheerfully. "Leon and Saul know I can use swords anyway … I just let them and Ax handle things most of the time because they really like it … but I'm having fun now!"

Saul suddenly freed a mace from the wall and swung it like a baseball bat a monkey that was coming straight at him, sending it flying into the wall, where it shattered into dust. "Cool," Saul remarked.

"He can use weapons that we didn't know about _as well_?" Draco demanded.

"Go Saul!" Tanya said, not paying him any attention, "You found a weapon! Nice swing too!"

Saul laughed, "Well, next time we have mock battles, I know I can actually use a weapon reasonably well!" he said happily, and bashed another monkey.

"What did you say?" Tanya asked Draco.

"Has he used a mace before?" Draco asked, looking pointedly at Saul.

"No, I don't think so," Tanya replied.

"Right," Draco said.

"Dammit! Stay bloody dead!" Saul yelled at the monkey he'd just bashed, which was scampering away with a missing limb, and went to try and kill it again.

The group got back together, figuring that would be easier, now that they all had weapons they could use. Saul was the basher, while the other three removed limbs and heads. Heads regrew, but there was a moment of panic from the monkey, during which Saul could usually bash it to pieces, before the head had time to reform.

Arms and legs, however, turned to dust upon separation from the body, and didn't regrow.

Half an hour later they'd dealt with all bar one of the monkeys, which had scampered up the wall and was chatting soundless at them from the room, out of reach.

They rested for awhile, keeping an eye on the monkey to make sure it didn't sneak up on them. The battle had been pretty intense, and they were all fairly tired now, so there was no point in trying to coax the monkey down, particularly since they didn't need to be at the top of the pyramid until seven in the morning. "I'm pretty sure this is the last layer," Leon remarked, "The map didn't say how many there were, but there can't be much more than this."

Saul looked around the room carefully, "This'll be the last," he agreed. "Looking at the size of this chamber in comparison with the first one, I'd say that there couldn't be more than one chamber on top of this one. Look at the size of the roof."

Tanya looked up in alarm and noticed that the roof was, indeed, very small. "That means that the next one will be really small," she said, and the three boys put their arms around her. "It'll be ok, you'll see," Draco said, in a rare moment of kindness.

Once they were all rested, Draco used magic to summon the monkey down, and Saul bashed it with his mace happily. The door to the next level opened, and they went upstairs, Tanya walking very slowly.

In the top room of the pyramid, the only thing was a pedestal with another stone monkey, holding a stone in it's paws. They approached it nervous and took the Portkey from it's hand, but it didn't come to life, so they sat down in a corner and watched it. While they were watching the monkey, Tanya fell asleep, sitting in Leon's lap, with her head on Draco's shoulder and legs over Saul's lap.

"Does everyone at your school hate me?" Draco asked.

"What would make you think that?" Saul asked, a little drowsily.

"Hasn't _she _told everyone bad things about me?"

"She hasn't said anything about you since the first month after she returned to Australia," Saul replied. "She's really different when we're at school – she's never been this bitter, ever, in the time that I've known her … I guess she has a lot of stuff being brought up, and she doesn't like it. I've never seen her cry before."

"I have," Draco said quietly.

"I'm not supposed to be telling you _anything_, but let me give you some advice, Draco, quit doing what everyone tells you to, quit thinking, and rationalising, and just listen to your own heart. It's the only way you're going to get anywhere in life."

* * *

"And that's my wonderful little life for you," Justine sighed. After a whole lot of prodding, she'd been convinced to tell Harry and Hermione what had been bothering her all day. Now they knew everything that had driven her from Hogwarts three years before. "Don't tell Ron, and _don't_ tell Draco. I can't deal with them right now," she added.

"Ron wouldn't have done that," Hermione said.

"Open your eyes Hermione, he did, oh, I'm sorry, did I really sleep with my best friend Kris, who I see as a brother, and let Ron watch it all, which is the only way it would have gotten into a pensieve, and then after I've turned into this porn-star goddess, let Draco find out about it? Yeah, that's what happened," Justine replied, and got up, walking away to the back of the cave.

Ax half stood, but Harry motioned him back, and stood up, following Justine to the back of the cave. Hermione looked after him with an expression that said quite clearly that she Harry was disagreeing with her, in favour of Justine, and she obviously didn't understand why.

"Hey, truth hurts," Ax shrugged.

At the other end of the cave, Justine had slipped into one of the beds that she and Hermione had prepared while the boys were away, and, when she heard someone settle down beside her, said, "I don't want to talk right now Ax."

"It's not Ax," Harry replied.

"Oh," Justine said. "I still don't want to talk right now."

"I just wanted to say … I've always known Ron was bitter when it came to Draco, but I never realised that he would stoop as low as that," With that, he stood and returned to the fire. Justine let her eyes close and fell asleep in seconds.

* * *

The air in the Great Hall was suddenly under extreme pressure, and then it was filled with the students who'd gone away, as well all the Hogwarts students who had, for the first time since the schools had come, been able to dine in the Great Hall themselves. Everyone was milling around everywhere, as they tried to find their friends.

Tanya and Saul, who'd appeared fairly close to the doors, looked and one another, then Tanya used a chair to aid her in jumping onto Saul's shoulders, were she stood, one foot on either shoulder and yelled at the top of her lungs, "_Kallaixians over here_!" waving her arms.

Slowly the other Kallaix students fought their way through the masses to reach them. "You used my word!" Justine said, beaming up at Tanya, who jumped lightly back down and grinned back at her.

"I thought it was appropriate," she replied. "Can we hit the beds, I'm still tired."

"You only just woke up, Red," Saul pointed out.

"It was an arduous day, and night, and I'm still tired. Besides, you _woke_ me up, I didn't wake up naturally," Tanya replied, and headed for the boat.

Kris put an arm around Justine, "You ok?" he asked.

"I guess," she replied, as the entire group followed Tanya down to the boat.

"I spent most of the trip trying to kill Ron," Tegan said, bouncing up to Justine. "Soo much fun! We got sent to an Australian dragon enclosure … I met the Peterson dragon that got herself into a Muggle movie before the Ministry found the Muggle involved. Shriek, or whatever it was."

"Shrek," Saul replied, "It's a golden classic."

"For you baby, I could be," Adam said, in a perfect Puss-in-Boots imitation, causing Saul to shriek, then giggle and run toward the boat, all the boys following.

Jacque and Jeffery, who had apparently gotten quite enough sleep, were laughing and joking with each other as the headed for the boat. "What are you guys gonna do?" Justine asked them.

Jacque smiled, "Set up some more bugs," she replied. "I want to know what's going on _everywhere_ in Hogwarts. See what sort of dirt I can dig up … you never know when it might come in handy."

Justine nodded. "Have fun," she replied.

"Oh, we will," Jacque replied, smiling. "I just get a bug into Daphne's room – I'm looking forward to seeing what that will find."

Justine's eyes lit up, "Keep me posted," she said.

Jacque nodded, "Of course," she replied.

* * *

Ginny was in the Gryffindor tower, although they'd been allowed to eat the first part of their meal in the Great Hall this morning, once the rest of the students had arrived home, they'd had to leave again. Everyone else was eating, but she'd already finished her meal – she had when the rest of the schools had arrived back.

"Ginny, there's someone at the portrait hole for you," someone called to her, and she realised that the Fat Lady had come into one of the portraits in the room to try and find her. Must be someone with persistence then.

She got up and opened the portrait, and found Electra standing there, grinning wickedly. "You remember I mentioned that petition?" she said, and held up a piece of parchment, letting go of the second end. A roll of signatures that nearly reached the ground fell down. "Seems your Daphne has quite a lot of enemies," Electra remarked, "All but three girls in Slytherin from your school have signed it, as have everyone from the other schools … I just need the Gryffindor's to sign, and then I'll take it to Kallaix – I thought I'd leave them till the last, to show them the support they've found."

"If you leave it with me, I'll take care of that, and take it to Harry. This'll have to go through him and Defence Council to get rid of Daphne. No one else can remove her," Ginny said.

Electra nodded. "Thank you," she said.

"It's me that should be thanking you," Ginny replied. "I've had to deal with Daphne on the team all year – it's so frustrating having to deal with that girl."

"I can well imagine," Electra replied, then they said goodbye, and walked back to her schools quarters.

Ginny took the petition, closed the portrait hole, then turned to the common room, and everyone there looked at her expectantly. Ginny smiled, "Who wants to get back at Daphne Greengrass? I don't think she made a good Huntress … what about you?"

Everyone cheered delightedly, just as Harry walked into the room. "Ginny, there's a DA meeting now."

"That's it! No one who's in the DA is leaving this room until the petition has been signed!" Ginny yelled.

"Petition?" Harry enquired.

"To get rid of Daphne," Ginny replied.

"Oh, let me sign," Harry said, then saw the amount of signatures already there. "Was this the Australians doing? Or yours?"

"Neither, it was the Egyptians," Ginny replied.

"Interesting," Harry said, adding his name to the list, then dragging Ginny and the other DA members away for the meeting.

* * *

Justine was trying to sleep and doing a miserable job of it. It was almost as if every atom in her body was infused with manic energy. She tossed onto her back and pulled the doona up under her chin. Maybe she'd sleep better if she was on her back, shutting her eye's Justine again tried to reclaim sleep. No.

Frustrated she flipped over onto her belly and burrowed her cheek into her favourite pillow. Ever since she had found out what Ron had done on Tuesday night at the Hunt Feast her sleeping patterns had been way out of whack. At least she had gotten plenty of sleep on her makeshift bed last night curled in between Harry and Ax, Hermione refusing to sleep next to her on the basis of her spreading lies about Ron.

How dare she accuse Justine of being the liar in this case when it had all been that bastard Ron? He had destroyed Justine's entire world, the prick, and now it was all_ Justine's _fault?

Justine sighed in frustration and reached out one hand in the semi darkness achieved by shutting the blinds to grope around on the night stand for her mobile phone, she needed to talk to someone.

She flipped it open and scanned the phonebook, eventually calling Mark - she figured she could slip out while everyone slept off the tours and have breakfast with her favourite cousin.

"Hello?" came the cheery response down the line.

"Hey handsome where are you?"

"Drinking coffee, how was the tour thingy honey?" He asked, seemingly too cheerful for the early hour, Justine glanced at the luminous hands of her clock… okay so it wasn't too early.

"Are you at the three broomsticks?" Justine asked "I can come join you."

Mark answered, "No hun, I had to come down to London yesterday for a meeting with a director, then today I'm off to a magazine photo shoot."

"Oh."

"But we can meet when I come back up for the Quidditch, okay?"

"Yep."

Mark sensed something was wrong with Justine. "What's wrong? Tell me."

Justine smiled at the phone, "I'll be fine, I just wanted to, I don't know… escape?"

"Oh… wait… Justine there's a dude across the street taking photo's of me so I've got to go but I say this to you, don't put off till tomorrow what you can do today, find something to occupy your mind."

Justine stared at the phone after she hung up. "You're so right." She got up and put on a black ribbed turtle necked sweater and a black mini skirt. She slipped on her black knee high boots and some dark sunnies and walked to her bedroom door. "Let's do this now."

* * *

Ginny walked into the DA Meeting with Harry and the rest of the Gryffindor's, and took a place to one side of the room. "I wanted to talk to the full DA group, rather than just the DC, because I think this is something really important. It was first brought to me by Leon, who got it from the Kallaix students."

"What are you doing, getting ideas from _them_?" Daphne demanded.

"The Kallaix students have plenty of good ideas, Daphne. Not everyone is too close minded to realise this," Ginny remarked. "Let Harry talk!"

"She's right – the Australian's _do_ have ideas," Draco agreed, and everyone turned to stare at him, "What? Saul was the only reason that we managed to get through our Tour as easily as we did."

Harry smiled slightly – finally Draco was coming to realise that not all Kallaix students were modelled on Justine. Now he just had to realise that Justine was in no way to blame for what had happened between them, and that was the same nice person that Draco had fallen in love with once, and everything would be good.

"So, what's this idea that the Australians had that was good?" Draco asked, when Harry didn't start talking.

"Well, you all know what happens when you break the rules here – a teacher will deal with it, and half the time they don't understand what's going on, right?" Everyone nodded in agreement, this was something every student had been through at least once. "Well, at Kallaix, they have two sets of rules. One of them is the school rules, things like vandalism, stuff against teachers … that sort of thing, and the others are the Student rules, which covers plagiarism of another students work, fighting, messy break-ups where someone gets hurt, and malicious pranks directed at fellow students. In the words of the Kallaix students 'When a student behaves in a heinous manner toward another student, or in a way that makes the school look bad,' a student trial is called.

"A student trial is presided over by three prefects, or the Head Students, depending on the severity of the crime. If it's just a minor fight between students, fifth year prefects will deal with, if its something like plagiarism, then the Heads are called in. Each party is represented by the student of their choice, and the presiding Judges are unbiased. The judges form a decision, and that decision is unable to be appealed against, unless a teacher believes that the decision was biased. In that case, a retrial with different judges is called," Harry finished.

"That sounds pretty interesting," Draco remarked, "But how did you find out so much about it? Owled Kallaix or something?"

"No, I had the Head Girl and one of the Prefects with me on the Mystery Tours," Harry replied, "I got it all from them. They were pretty happy to talk about it all."

Draco nodded, "I'll definitely bring it up with Dumbledore at the next Head meeting," he said. "I really like it."

Hermione looked a little unsure about whether to agree or not. On one hand it was a good idea, but on the other … she wasn't sure she could trust anything that Justine was telling them about. She hadn't had anything against the Kallaix Head Girl, but all this stuff about Ron? Ron just wasn't _like_ that! "I think that it could be used by some of the Prefects to try and gain too much power within the school and make the students do what they want," she said after a moment.

"That's way the teachers preside over the decisions, with the ability to call a retrial," Harry pointed out, "To make sure the Judges are just and unbiased."

Hermione shrugged, but didn't say anything. Damn Justine, she'd brought a rift in between Hermione and the boy she loved, a rift that should never had been brought up. Why couldn't Harry see that Ron wasn't like that? That Ron wouldn't do something to deliberately hurt someone? Draco looked between Harry and Hermione, and immediately knew that _something_ had happened between them. He'd ask Harry what later on.

A fifth year Prefect turned up at the doorway, "Terry Boot, Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger?" he half asked, half summoned.

"Yeah?" Draco asked, "What?"

"Dumbledore wishes to see you in his office," the Prefect said, sounding a little self important.

Draco rolled his eyes at Harry, "If it wasn't for the trial thing, I wouldn't go … but I may as well let him know that we're thinking of new options for the school – that's what the Head Students are supposed to, right? Take the students words to the teacher and make sure something happens about it?"

Harry laughed and nodded. "Tell me what happens later," he said.

Draco nodded, and the three of them left the room, following the overly excited Prefect.

* * *

Justine walked to the door that Winky had told her held the D.A. meeting. The room of requirement, what a quaint name. She opened the door and walked to the middle of the blank room. She looked around and casually put her sunnies in a pocket and pulled her hair back into a pony tail.

Justine opened her mouth and screamed.

* * *

The door had opened and Harry knew someone was in the room. The members of the D.A. hadn't had to hide since the days of Umbridge and when Lupin had returned and the numbers had swelled, the occurrences of unwanted guests had dwindled to zero. Then an ear splitting scream ripped through the room, and it seemed that the very illusion making the walls themselves shatter, causing them to splinter and smash to smithereens, the shards off illusion, glasslike and glinting, to fall at their feet. And their in the middle of the room, dressed in black and radiating a black glow of dark energy stood Justine.

"Hello everyone," she said with a flick of the wrist. All of the D.A. were thrown against the walls with such force that they lost consciousness. Harry alone had managed to retain clarity, and he realised that his Magai powers were stopping her control over him to an extent. He could slide against the walls moving back and forth, but he couldn't move from the wall itself.

He suddenly remembered Justine and saw that she alone stood next to a lone figure who wasn't against the walls. Ron. Harry's eyes widened, it was all going down. _Now._ Even if he'd been able to, he wasn't sure that he would have done anything to stop her, knowing what Ron had done, he understood that she wanted retribution. He would have in her place, he knew that.

"Having a nice day, Ronnie?" she asked coolly, watching Ron, who was looking like a mouse when confronted with a cat … a very _big_, fast, _dangerous_ cat. "I just came up to have a nice little chat with you. You see, the other night you told me that we knew each other really well, that we knew everything about each other … I know something that you don't know I know," using magic, she hurled him against the wall, but she herself didn't touch him. When she closed her fingers, as if his throat was between them, he convulsed, as if Justine really was choking him.

Harry started trying to break Justine's hold on him – he couldn't stand by and watch her _kill_ Ron. Ron might have been a complete bastard, but he didn't deserve to _die_ for it. Justine didn't even turn to look at him, just flicked her other hand, and Harry found himself pinned back against the wall with even more force than before. It seemed he really had met his match with magic, and he decided that he really didn't like it.

Justine let her fingers fall, so that Ron could breath again. When she spoke again, it was in almost childish tone, that reminded Harry strongly of Bellatrix Lestrange, which really scared him. "Ronnie, are scawed? And you worried I'm gonna hurt chu bubby?" then her tone changed, taking on a slightly sadistic note, "You should be.

"Let's talk about _memories_, Ronnie. I have a really … interesting one here, and it's not one of those fake memories that you're so fond of, you know, the one's that destroy peoples worlds – this is a real one." She raised a hand and touched one finger to his forehead, but Ron's head slammed back against the wall under the force of the memory she hurled in his mind.

_Justine standing in her favourite jumper … Draco calling her a slut … Running to the Gryffindor tower … fear … Draco behind her, following her … Draco hitting her … the blood on her hand … the pain in her heart … Ax jumping down, saving her … Draco not loving her any more… _FLASH_ … Ron hugging his new girlfriend … Ron confiding that he'd destroyed someone's world … a vision of Justine inside Padma's mind, the pain she felt at that second betrayal … the retribution she would have._

Ron_ screamed_, the pain of Justine's spell, the power of the memory that Justine had thrown at him destroying what little control he had had. He stared at her, only now realising just how hurt Justine had been by all of that. Sure, she'd left the school, but he hadn't realised the emotional agony that she'd gone through.

"So, how was it, destroying someone's life for the _fun of it_? Did you get a little thrill?" Justine demanded.

"I only wanted you to-"

"Let's see how it feels to have your heart ripped into little tiny pieces, shall we?" Justine smiled at him, and that smile _really_ scared him. She knew what she was doing, knew how scared he was, and she was enjoying it. Now she placed her entire palm on Ron's head. "Enjoy," she said coldly.

_Padma seeing Ron dance with Justine … Jealousy, burning anger … Ax … drunk, handsome … the need for revenge … the sexual tension, desire … Ginny-no, Tanya's- pain … the betrayal of it … worthlessness … no understanding … Justine's anger … Padma's wantonness … Pain … Ax's disgust … Pain, Justine causing a lot of pain._

"NO!" Ron screamed, "It's not real!"

"How's it feel bub?" Justine sneered, "I've been there too – and IT WAS YOUR BLOODY FAULT! How dare you? Assume that it's not real. I only deal with _real_ memories, not made up CRAP used solely to destroy someone. If I destroy someone, I do it _properly_, and I only use what's already there."

"Don't you understand? I only wanted you back!"

"Understand?" Justine demanded, "You think I don't understand why you did all this? It was because I chose Draco, wasn't it? You couldn't handle that yoo him again. How did you feel when Harry chose him as a best friend last year? When Harry shared all that he created – the DA, the DC – with Draco. When Harry spent his summer holidays with Draco… did it hurt? If it did … YOU FUCKING DESERVED IT!" Justine screamed the last in his face and slapped him as hard as she could. Ron's head slammed back against the wall again, and his eyes went woozy for a moment.

"OH NO YOU DON'T!" Justine said, and threw a bolt of destructive healing magic at him, bringing him back to full consciousness without removing any pain and causing more while she did it. "YOU THOUGHT YOU AND YOUR IDIOT BROTHERS COULD JUST WALK IN AND FUCK MY LIFE UP BECAUSE YOU HAD A BLOW TO YOUR FUCKING EGO! GINNY IS THE ONLY DECENT ONE IN YOUR ENTIRE FUCKING FAMILY! I HATE YOU!"

Suddenly Ron started glowing with the same black purple energy as Justine was, and he screamed.

Harry turned to look at Ginny, stuck to the wall beside him, and saw that she was the only person in the room who was awake, and that she was watching Justine with an expression of fear, horror and disbelief. "Ginny, look away," Harry begged her, but she couldn't tear her eyes from her brother and the woman who was torturing him. Harry knew then that he would have to tell Ginny what had happened – Justine didn't need more enemies, she was losing control as it was.

Then he realised. She wasn't _losing_ control, she hadn't _had_ control, not completely control, since the moment she'd entered the room. She probably couldn't stop herself. No wonder he couldn't break her hold on him now – unbridled Magai power was the force that pretty much turned the universe. There was no way someone who was in control would be able to take down a Magai in Justine's situation.

Suddenly the door burst open and several of the Kallaix students raced into the room. Kris, Ax, Jeffery, Saul and Tanya raced into the room, then came a dead stop when they saw Justine. "Justine?" Kris asked tentatively, but she ignored him completely, as if she couldn't hear him.

"She's too far gone," Harry said, looking directly at Kris. "It's a Magai thing. You have to stop her."

Kris nodded, gulped and walked up to Justine, paused for a moment, then stepped between her and Ron. "Bunny?" Justine stopped, freezing completely, not even risking hurting the man she thought of as a brother. Everyone fell to the ground, and Harry grabbed Ginny, pulling her against his chest, tucking her face against his body, so that she couldn't see what was going on.

The illusion popped back into being, and it was suddenly a clearing, rather than a room. "Hey, where'd Kallaix come from?" Saul wondered. "This is the clearing, next to the Wentworth common room … this is Justine's place – ooh! I get it now!"

Jeffery, Saul and Ax went for the students that were lying unconscious on the ground around the walls. Justine turned and bolted from the room before anyone could stop her. Kris raced after her immediately and Harry let go of Ginny. "Ginny, please, don't hate Justine. I'll explain what happened as soon as I get back, you just have to let it go for a couple of hours. It's not what you think. If anyone asks, this was a DA training session that got out of hand, and it won't happened again." Then he raced after Kris.

Ginny rushed to her brother, all too happy to forget about Justine for a moment and make sure that her brother was alright. In the centre of the room, Tanya was standing and looking completely lost. She didn't know what was going on – Justine had been enjoying herself in Ron's company just days ago, and now she was trying to kill him … and she'd been scary.

"Ax?" Tanya asked, her voice sounding like that of a lost child. "What happened? Why did Justine do that?"

Jeffery and Saul were already floating everyone from the room, but they left Ron behind, figuring that it might be dangerous to move him, since they didn't know what had been done to him yet. They'd send Madam Pomfrey up when they reached the hospital wing.

Ax walked over to Tanya and hugged her gently. "Ron created a false memory of Justine cheating on Draco with _Kris_, of all people, back at the end of our forth year, before I came to Australia. Draco got all violent and Justine left, with a broken heart. She just found out what Ron did, and she tried to kill him. She wasn't in control of her Magai powers; I've never seen anything like that before. I hope I never do again."

Ginny, kneeling beside her brother, heard every word, and jumped back from Ron, staring at him. She thought she'd known him … and then she realised, that was exactly the sort of thing her brother would do, if Draco Malfoy got something Ron thought was his. She'd known that he'd gone out with Justine, but the way he told it, he'd broken up with her.

* * *

Justine raced through the corridors, running as fast as she could to try and outrun her emotions – unfortunately for her, rounding one of the many corners, she ran smack bang into her emotions. Reeling, Justine fell against one of the walls, and Draco Malfoy staggered against the other, taking a moment to recover.

"Oh, so now you're trying to _kill_ me, is that it?" he demanded icily, staring at her once he'd realised exactly what had happened.

Justine looked at him, her expression unreadable, and Draco suddenly realised that she was glowing with negative black energy. It had been a little dimmer, not surrounding her as strongly, until he had spoken. Above her, a window cracked and the shards fell to the ground and shattered completely, before disappearing.

Draco, however, was still caught up in the colour of her magic. It was the same as his. Whenever he used his magic, it was black. Where Harry's was multicoloured and spectacular, his was _scary_. Just like Justine's was. Before either of them had a chance to do anything else, the second last person Draco wanted to see rounded the corner.

Kristopher Crompton looked at Justine, then at Draco, then at the window, still with small shards of glass clinging to the frame above Justine's head. Kris suddenly grabbed Draco by the scruff of his shirt and lifted him bodily off the ground, walked around the corner and dumped Draco before going back to Justine.

Draco just stood there, shaken. He was over six foot in height, and Kristopher had lifted him up like a rag doll.

When Kris came around the corner, Justine looked at him, then took off again. Kris looked around the corner, "This isn't finished," he told Draco, then raced after Justine.

Just as Draco was considering following the pair of them to find out what was going on, Harry skidded around the corner, nearly knocking Draco over for the second time in as many minutes. "What's going on?" Draco demanded.

"Ron threw Justine over the edge, she's completely out of control of her Magai powers. If you go near her, she might kill you," Harry replied. "Don't follow," with that, he went off, chasing after Justine and Kris.

For a moment, Draco stood where he was, trying to make sense of what Harry had told him. Finally he decided that he might find answers at the DA meeting that was supposed to be going on, and headed off, continuing on the way he had been following before _she_ had turned up.

* * *

Kris and Harry threw upon the Entrance Hall doors and started down the sloping grounds after Justine. Ahead they could see her racing up the pier and on to the boat. There, Adam seemed to appear from nowhere and grabbed her, pulling her in for a hug.

"Good, Adam's got her, she'll stop running," Kris said, slowing down to a walk.

Following suit, Harry looked questioningly at Kris, "Why?" he enquired.

"Because he's Adam," Kris replied.

Harry sighed, realising that he wouldn't get any more out of Kris on this subject – besides, he didn't have the breath to ask too many more questions. It'd been awhile since he had run that far, that fast.

They made their way slowly down the grounds and onto the boat. The McEwan dragon was circling the boat worriedly, but neither of them notice, too intent on reaching Justine quickly.

When they found her, Justine was sitting on Adam's lap, one balled fist on either shoulder, her head buried in his chest, muttering incoherently and still glowing with black energy.

Adam looked up at them mildly, "She's been like this since she arrived, and what's wrong with the pool?" the pool, they noticed, was rippling and warping in very unnatural ways. Kris just walked over and lifted Justine, princess style, from Adam's lap. Justine twisted slightly to bury her head against Kris's chest and throw her arms around his neck.

"I'm going downstairs to try and calm her down. Don't follow immediately Harry, but come down in about five minutes," Kris told Harry and headed for the stairs. Tegan lurched sleepily upstairs before Kris could reach his destination.

"What's rocking the boat?" she asked, "It woke me up and I'm feeling irritated."

"Shit, it's McEwan!" Kris said.

Tegan blinked, and then registered what was wrong with Justine. "I'll calm her down," she said, and ran to the railings, diving smoothly over and into the lake, swimming with strong, sure strokes out to the distressed dragon, and the rocking of the boat quickly ceased as the dragon stopped stirring up the waters.

Kris was downstairs in a second, leaving Harry alone on deck with Adam, who folded his arms and stared hard at Harry. "What did you do to my Justine?" he demanded coolly.

"It's her story to tell, when she's ready," Harry replied. "But it involved Ron, myself, Draco and a few others."

"Was she trying to kill Ron too?" Adam inquired, "Tegan spent most our tour trying to kill him in some pretty ingenious ways, but she wouldn't say why.

"Again, I would advise you to talk to Justine – I don't know how much she would want you to know," Harry told her.

"Just as long as no one tried to physically hurt her … if they had, I – _we_ – would have had to kill them," Adam said.

Harry blinked, "I thought you were the _nice_ one," he remarked.

"Oh, I am," Adam replied, "But if someone hurts Justine, they're asking to die. She's our princess, everyone at Kallaix would die for her if need be, kill for her too, in a second. Because we know that she'd do the same for us."

Harry mulled over this for a moment, considering how closely the Australians seemed to be linked to one another, and found himself wishing that all of Hogwarts could be like that as well, not just the single Houses. Harry turned and headed downstairs, hoping that it had been long enough for Kris to calm Justine down.

He found the two of them in the living room and Justine seemed quite a bit calmer. She looked up at Harry as he walked into the room and smiled sheepishly, "Hi," she said.

"Hi," Harry replied, amused. "You seem a little … less black."

Justine grinned at him, "Yup, just the hands now," she told him, holding them up for evidence.

"Just don't mention you know who, or you know who two," Kris advised, "That would be a bad thing."

Harry rolled his eyes, "You know, I think you really need to get out of Hogwarts, and right now, I could whole heartedly agree. There's quite a few secret passageways into Hogsmeade, so what do you think? First butterbeers on me."

"Won't you get in trouble?" Justine asked, "Dumbledore probably won't like it at all."

"Do I care?" Harry demanded, arching an eyebrow.

"I'd say not," Kris replied, "And anyway, you're Dumbledore's golden boy, you won't get in trouble. Come on, let's wake the others and get on deck. I think we could all use a break."

* * *

Ten minutes later everyone was assembled on deck. Saul, Jeffery, Ax and Tanya had arrived, with Ginny in tow, and since no one had asked the Gryffindor girl to leave, she was still there, listening to the plan. Harry was trying to decide which of the passageways he should use.

"Screw passageways," Justine snorted, "Let's take the front door. We've got horses, and Harry, you've got a broom."

So far, it had been decided that Jacque, Jeffery, Alyson, Adam, Tegan and Saul were not going to become, either because they were too tired or they just didn't feel like it. "I can ride Nubie, Tanya can take Isis, Loki will let Kris ride him," Justine pointed out.

"Ok, sounds a plan," Ax said, "But I'll need to borrow your broom Justine, you forgot about me."

"Sorry," Justine said. "Before we go, I think that I should explain to everyone what's been going on, since not everyone knows. If you don't what to hear it all over again, those of you who know, feel free to wander off, just nobody interrupt me."

Part way through her explanation, Daphne Greengrass stalked up the pier, but was stopped from stepping on to the boat by the McEwan dragon, who was still a little on edge. "WEASLEY!" she screamed in frustration, "GET OVER HERE _NOW_!" Ginny looked guilty at Justine, who nodded, "Go if you want to," Justine told her.

Ginny sighed, "I'd better, I still have to live with her, though hopefully not for too much longer," she'd already handed the petition for Daphne's removal over to Tanya on the way down, though no one had had a chance to tell Justine about it yet. Ginny nodded to them all, then trotted off the boat to join Daphne, who went to grab her by the arm to drag Ginny away.

The McEwan dragon reared up out of the water and snarled, Daphne left her attempt to touch Ginny, and jerked her head in the direction of the castle, stalking off. Ginny followed silently, looking as if she was going a funeral.

"And so, I want all of you to _promise_ that you won't tell Draco about _any_ of this. He didn't believe me, and I don't want him to know, if he's too stupid to figure out I _wasn't_ lying, he doesn't deserve the information. At least I know what happened now," Justine said.

Ax and Kris stood up to stand on either side of her, "And if I hear that anyone's mentioned it, that person answers to _us_," Kris said.

"_Painfully_," Ax added.

Jeffery stood up, "On behalf of everyone, I have to ask – why would we?"

Half an hour later, the group was most of the way to Hogsmeade, and the Australians were exclaiming in delight over the petition that Ginny had given to Tanya. "We can finally get rid of Daphne!" Justine laughed, then an expression of mischief came over her features, "You know, if we even _mentioned_ it Geggly at the next event, he'll probably give it to all of the Ministers to sign as well! _No one_ could say no to that!"

Kris laughed at that, "Knowing dad, you're right. Oh! How funny will that be? Let's do it!"

A couple of metres above them, Harry and Ax were racing back and forth, testing the speed of their brooms. "You're a pretty good flyer – why aren't you on the Quidditch team?" Harry asked.

"I can fly, but I can't be bothered to do it professionally. Flying if for spare time, duelling is for continual practice," Ax replied calmly. "I was a Chaser for Peterson for awhile, but then I decided to dedicate myself to the sword."

Harry nodded in understanding, just as Hogsmeade came into view. "So, where first?" Tanya asked Harry. She hadn't been to Hogsmeade before, and really had no idea what _any_ of the attractions were.

"Well, I already said I'd buy the first round of butterbeers, my only request now is that first round doesn't turn into _only_ round," the group laughed and several people assured him it wouldn't be.

"You know, maybe we should do lunch as well," Tanya remarked, "I'm getting hungry."

"All that sleeping took it out of you?" Ax teased, "Don't worry, I agree. I'm starving too."

"I'm not paying for lunch," Harry warned.

"We wouldn't expect you to," Kris replied, grinning.

"Kwis? I wuv you," Justine said, turning pleading eyes to him.

"Your lunch is on me bunny," Kris said in defeat, knowing by now that it wasn't even worth trying to fight.

"Thank you!"

"Is this normal?" Harry enquired.

"Yeah," Ax replied. "You'll get used to it. Kris makes it all better by spoiling her – Justine has the money, and pays for herself often enough, but whenever she's had something happen, it's time for Kris to come in and spend a load of money to make her feel better. Expect him to buy little presents every five minutes all day."

Harry laughed, "I'll keep that in mind. Does she ever wonder why the press thinks that they're going out?"

"Oh, she knows well enough," Ax assured him, "That doesn't mean she's going to put on an act to pretend that they aren't friends. Just like Mark – no one yet has managed to figure out that they're cousins."

"They're _cousins_?" Harry demanded, and everyone laughed as they rode into Hogsmeade.

"What are you going to do with the horses?" Harry asked, as everyone dismounted.

The girls and Kris smiled, and took off the saddles, stacking them in a neat pile and taking the bridles off as well, then turned around and headed across the street and walked toward the nearest shop to 'window shop' for awhile.

"But … shouldn't you do something with the horses?" Harry asked, looking between the horses and the girls retreating backs. "What if someone tries to steal them?"

"They're Llysanyins," Kris replied calmly, "If someone tries to steal them, be it on their own head."

"Try being the operative word," Ax added, shrinking his broom and tucking it into a pocket. Harry did the same with his, and the three boys headed after the two girls. Justine was attempting to drag Tanya into a clothes store.

"Justine! If you put one foot in that store!" Kris yelled after her, and Justine looked over her shoulder with a look that seemed to say 'who me? I wasn't going anywhere _near_ the store'.

"Lunch first. If you're going to drag us into every clothing and/or accessorizing shop in the place, I need some food to convert into energy. So does Harry, he isn't used to going shopping with girls, have pity on the poor man," then he turned to Harry, "Welcome to every man's hell."

Justine gave him a look, "You're lucky you're buying me lunch," she informed him, "Otherwise you'd be carrying my bags _all day_."

Kris muttered in Harry's ear, "Like that's gonna stop her," but he didn't let Justine hear him.

* * *

Harry led them to the Three Broomsticks and they all ordered lunch. Justine ended up sitting squashed between Kris and Harry, who started a jokes competition, while Ax and Tanya stood by and shook their heads, shaking with laughter. Lunch passed as quickly as Justine could make it, and then she dragged Kris and Harry off to shop.

Tanya threatened to walk in the other direction, so Ax caught her and dragged her after Justine, while she laughed and protested. Ax ignored this, "If we have to put up with Justine doing clothes shopping, you have to as well."

"I'd much rather go and visit this 'Shrieking Shack'," Tanya complained.

"Don't make me carry you," Ax warned, "I will if I have to."

Tanya made a face and nodded, knowing that Ax meant exactly what he said. He did the same thing to every girl in Kallaix when the mood took him. They followed Kris and Harry to the clothing shop, Ax laughing at Tanya's disgruntled look. "You have to buy a dress for tomorrow night you know."

"I still have the one from last ball," Tanya protested.

"You need a _different_ one," Ax informed her, "You can't wear the same dress to two occasions in a row, at the same place. It just isn't done."

"It is now," she replied.

"Not while I'm still breathing," Ax replied, "Or Justine, for the matter. She'd _hurt_ you if you tried that."

Tanya stared at him, "Why? Why bother?"

Ax just rolled his eyes, "Ask Justine, I haven't figured it out yet either. It's just not done."

Tanya sighed as Ax steered her into Gladrags Wizard Wear – the most exclusive clothing shop in Hogsmeade. "Why me?" she asked the roof above her. "Why can't we go to one of the cheaper stores?"

"Because Justine ordered clothes from her favourite designer, and he's sending them here," Ax replied, "Besides, Justine only ever shops at the most exclusive places she can find. You'll get used to it."

Tanya shook her head, "No I won't," she replied.

"Oh, you _will_."

* * *

Justine was standing in the middle of the foyer, attempting to get the attention of a store clerk, and failing miserably. They were all racing around, most of them chatting about the mysterious order from 'Déanni', whoever that was, or informing Justine that they were busy trying to finish the dresses for the Egyptian Head Girl, and Hermione, both of whom had payed in advance for their dresses to be ready by the next day.

Justine was obviously unused to being ignored in clothing stores, in Australia, pretty much every wizard knew exactly what she looked like and wouldn't dream of tending to anyone else before her. Her hands started sparking black again, and Harry stepped past her, "HELLO!" he yelled.

Every store attendant spun around, "Mr. Potter!" they all cried, almost simultaneously, and suddenly Harry was surrounded by a flurry of activity, most of the attendants assuring him that they hadn't seen him, and hadn't meant to be rude. Harry sighed, and directed a half bow in Justine's direction, letting her take centre stage.

She walked past him, and raised on hand to point at a medium sized box that was sitting behind the main desk, the order that had just arrived from Déanni that morning, and which everyone had been fussing over. "My delivery?" she enquired coolly. "I need to select my dress for tomorrow night."

The attendants all squealed almost simultaneously, amazed that they had found the person that the delivery from the most exclusive young designer in Italy belonged to. The store owner, looking flustered, tried to remain calm and treat this young woman as a normal customer – besides, she wasn't sure if Justine was the person the delivery belonged to yet, "May I ask your name, Miss?"

"Snape," Justine bit out, "Justine Snape." She pointed again, "My order? Number 100304 from Déanni"

"Miss Snape! I'm sorry, we didn't realise," the woman simpered.

"You do now," Justine informed her.

The store owner handing the box over to Justine. "Will you be paying for that now, miss?" she asked.

Justine gave her a look, "Of course not," she replied, "Déanni will charge it, besides, I haven't chosen which dress I want yet."

"But, have you not only ordered one? We only got the single box."

"I require an attendant and a rack to hang my dresses on," Justine said, ignoring the question, and opening the box. The store owner herself hurried conjured up a rack, as Justine took out a dress that might have fitted a Barbie doll, but certainly not Justine. The moment she had it clear of the box however, it became a life-sized vision of perfection.

Justine eyed it, "No, I don't think so … but I'll need to see it on before I can decide."

She handed it to the storeowner and started taking out an entire wardrobe of possible dresses. Once she had unpacked half of the selections, she closed the box for the moment. "I'll have a look at these first," she said calmly, "And the rest can wait for a moment."

"We'll shut up the shop for a little while and let you try the dresses on in privacy," the storeowner said, someone who could afford to have an entire selection of gowns sent to her fromDéanni demanded the upmost respect. "But I can only offer you an hours time, with the Moonlight Ball tomorrow night."

Justine nodded slightly, "Of course, I understand," she replied. "Tanya! I need you to put some of these dresses on."

Tanya, who had been examining the cheapest rack in the store, and still exclaimed over the prices, spun around to see the dress that Justine was holding up, and tried to back away, "I couldn't try that on! I'd break it!"

"You have to try it on," Justine replied firmly, "How can I be expected to know how it hangs unless I see it on? Mirrors lie … besides, it'd take me forever to try all of these on."

"And it'll take me any less?" Tanya demanded.

"I'll try _some_ of them on," Justine said, impatient, "But I need to see what they look like on someone else first. Try!"

Tanya sighed and walked forward, knowing that she wouldn't be able to avoid it, and took the dress, holding it as if it was made of air or something, and walked into the changing room. It took her ten minutes to change and come out.

"No," Justine said, "Try this one."

In the ten minute wait for Tanya to change, Justine tried some of the dresses on, dismissing every single one of them. When Tanya emerged, Justine sighed, "You can't take ten minutes to change dresses!" she said. "That one doesn't work either by the way. I think I need someone to help you change quicker."

"Let someone I don't know help me _change_?" Tanya almost shrieked, "No! No! No!"

"Then I'll do it," Justine sighed, selecting another dress and shooing Tanya back into the changing room. With Justine helping, the process of changing dresses was accelerated immediately, to Justine's relief.

After the fifth dress, one of the attendants came over, asking if they required refreshments. Justine ordered something very obscure, Tanya looked confused and asked for a butterbeer, and they didn't hear what the boys asked for, because they were standing over in a corner, conferring with an attendant.

"We're just going to get fitted for tuxes, bunny," Kris told her.

Justine nodded absently, and started working her way through more of the dresses, taking an entire selection into the changing room, and only coming out with Tanya when she wanted to ask Kris's opinion on something, which was rare. Whenever they came out, Harry was standing looking uncomfortable in a tux, while Kris went over it critically. "Why hadn't you gotten a tux yet?" Kris asked Harry.

"Hermione was going to drag me down here tomorrow," Harry replied, "But we aren't exactly talking at the moment."

One of the attendants gave him a strange look, which he missed, and then continued on her way.

Then the refreshments arrived. The boys were served first, since the girls were still in the changing room, and Harry noticed that one of the glasses was a fluted wine glass filled with silvery liquid. "Is Draco Malfoy getting fitted at the moment?" Harry asked, recognising the drink as the only drink that Draco would buy in such a situation.

"No, Mr. Potter, that is Miss Snape's drink," the attendant replied, and went to deliver it to Justine.

"Why did you ask that?" Kris enquired.

"Because that's the same obscure drink that Draco orders every time something like this happens," Harry replied.

"It's the only drink that Justine will drink in clothing stores, she says it calms her down, because she needs _clarity_ to pick the 'perfect dress' – which she usually only ever wears once anyway."

Almost an hour later, Tanya was dragged out wearing a beautiful black dress, and everyone nodded appreciatively. "Wouldn't work on you, Justine, but it looks really good on Tanya," Ax contributed, and Justine nodded.

"You're right," she agreed. "That's it, I'm sick of trying things on." She fished out her mobile phone and pressed one of the auto-dial numbers.

"Déanni, _darling_, I'm not interrupted anything, am I?"

They could just hear the heavily Italian accentedresponse, "No, darling, whatever is the matter? Is there a problem with the clothing? I was not sure for some of them, but I thought hey, she likes trying dresses on."

"I can't find the right one!" Justine replied.

"Cara, the perfect dress is there, I packed it myself."

"I knew you'd put a surprise in there for me, where can I find it?"

"At the bottom of the box, wrapped in silver tissue paper." Suddenly there was a commotion on the other end of the line, and everyone close by could hear the man when he yelled, "It is Miss Justine Snape, please, do not interrupt me. No, all calls can wait for a moment!"

"I'm sorry, you sound busy," Justine said.

"Never too busy for you, Cara."

Justine smiled, "Thank you _so_ much Déanni, you'll just charge it as usual?"

"Of course, Cara. I look forward to dealing with you again soon."

Justine was smiling as she hung up the phone and flew to the box, digging through it until she found the package he'd described to her, while everyone else watched her with amazement. She had just personally called Déanni and he had put offother callsto speak with Justine.

The moment that Justine removed the package, she found herself holding a gown made of silver liquid silk. She smiled, "Perfect," she said, "My favourite colour! I knew Déanni wouldn't let me down."

Harry, Kris and Ax had since found their tuxes, and Tanya had put off buying a dress for the moment, thinking to return tomorrow when she wasn't completely _sick_ of trying things on. "She chose a dress in the same colour as Draco's eyes," he remarked softly to Kris.

"We may as well start walking," Kris said, "She has to fuss over packing the dress up for another ten, twenty minutes. We don't need to stay for that."

"Can I come too?" Tanya asked hopefully.

"Sure," Kris replied, slinging an arm over her shoulder.

"I need to ask Justine something," Ax said, as the rest of them headed for the door.

"Look for a joke shop," Kris replied, "Harry, lead the way."

Harry led them out onto the street and up to Zonko's Joke shop. The moment that they walked inside, Kris looked around and headed straight for a large sign saying 'Flammable'. "Um, Tanya should we be letting me go there?" Harry asked, turned to the red head next to him, but she was already gone.

"Where?" Harry muttered, looking around, then saw her standing under a sign reading 'Explosive – Caution, Do NOT Touch'. She was standing there, delicately examining each of the explosives, and completely ignoring the sign that said Do NOT Touch. Harry was torn between running over and telling her to stop touching those things, and going to make sure Kris didn't set fire to place.

Before he could make up his mind, Ax strolled into the store, looking a little smug. "Hey," he said.

Harry gave him a panicked look, "Tanya's _touching_ the explosives, and Kris is looking at flammable objects – I don't think that's particularly safe," he said.

The moment Harry mentioned where Tanya was, Ax turned and headed toward her, still seeming completely unconcerned. Harry threw Kris a look, but Kris didn't seem to be doing anything dangerous, so he followed Ax over to where Tanya was standing, fiddling with one of the explosive devices.

"Does it have the ingredients?" Harry heard Ax asking Tanya as he approached.

"No," Tanya replied, "How bodgy. Well, I'm pretty sure I could work out what goes in it anyway, and I'm _sure_ I can make this more explosive." Harry gave a start – she was already holding one of the most explosive devices in the shop.

Suddenly the door opened and Justine came in off the street, looking very pleased and holding the box that had her dress inside. Kris approached her, and she handed him the box without a word, as the two them came over to join the rest of the group. "Anything in flammable?" Tanya asked Kris without looking up.

"Nope, nothing we can't do better on our own," Kris replied. "What about you?"

"Well, I've got this, which I've never seen before," Tanya said, holding up the object that she was fiddling with. "It's supposed to make a really big explosion – noise, fire, that sort of thing, and it'll break anything within a ten metre radius. I'm sure that I could extend that though."

"You're _sure_?" Kris demanded.

"Give us an hour in the potion lab and me'n'Teegs will have it completely worked out," Tanya replied positively.

"Right. How many do you need?"

"Two, one to explode and one to dissect," Tanya replied.

"I am on it, boss," Kris said, saluting, and took the explosive from Tanya's hand, taking another from the shelf before heading over to the counter with them.

"What's going on? Those things are dangerous," Harry said, staring between the Kallaix students.

Justine smiled, "These are what we use when we _really_ don't feel like going to class," she replied. "Last time we blew up half of the Great Hall – while no one was in there of course," she added hastily when Harry gave her a half amazed, half afraid look.

"You blew up your Great Hall?" he repeated.

"Yup. The teachers spent the entire day fixing it. Saul and Tegan convinced McEwan to make us some waves and we spent the day surfing," Justine replied.

"Surfing?" Harry said doubtfully.

"Don't worry, you wouldn't understand," Justine replied, "Surfing is … life."

Kris walked over and handed a paper bag to Tanya. "He tried to warn me that these were dangerous," he told Tanya who laughed delightedly.

"As if we'd be buying them if they weren't," she remarked.

"OK, I need a jewellery shop," Justine said. "And something sweet. I feel like something sweet."

"We'll go via Honeydukes," Harry replied.

* * *

They spent some time in the giant sweet store, then, as they walked toward the jewellery store, from which Harry assured her that he and Draco had shopped in often enough to know that jewellery was the top of the range, Justine paused outside the window to a toy shop and smiled, pointing to a bunny in the window. "Isn't it cute?" she remarked, not seeming to be talking to anyone in particular.

The words had no sooner left her lips than Kris had gone inside, returning a minute later carrying the bunny, which he presented to Justine with a bow, "Your every wish is my command," he told her.

Justine laughed, hugged the bunny for a moment, then handed to Harry, who shrunk it and put it in a pocket when Ax muttered instructions in his ear. In the jewellery shop, the moment they walked into the shop, Justine paused, listening to the music that filled the place. "Oh my God! I love this song!" she said, delightedly, and Harry looked at her for a moment, then seemed to dismiss what he was thinking of. Justine danced around the shop, listening to the music and looking at the jeweller. Eventually she selected a simple silver chain with a round two carat diamond hanging from it, then exchanged a significant look with Ax.

Ax nodded, and led the rest of the group from the shop. "We may as well go and have a look at the cosmetics shop," he remarked, "She'll be a moment packing that."

"I need some hair gel," Kris agreed, "Let's go."

Justine had caught up with them by the time they reached the cosmetic shop, and swept inside, staring around, and grabbing several hair products, which were followed by perfumes, deodorant charms, lip gloss and the like. Eventually they reached the nail polish section and Justine paused.

"What colour?" Kris asked.

"Do you really need to ask?" Justine demanded.

"The silver is over there," Ax remarked, pointing, and the group stood around in front of an entire rack of silver nail polish.

Kris selected one and held it up, "This one?" he asked.

"No," Justine said dismissively. "Too dark."

Kris selected one several shades lighter, and held that up. "Too light," Justine said, giving it no more than a glance.

While Kris tried to find the right shade, Harry stood, thinking about what he had seen that day. Justine had chosen a dress that was Draco's favourite colour, they had the same favourite band, the same favourite drink … working on his theory, Harry looked through the nail polishes until he found the one he was looking for, and lifted it up. "How about this?" he asked.

Justine turned to look at him, and suddenly gave a shriek, "That's _it!_" she said, "That's _the_ shade! The ultimate! I've never found it before, oh my God I love you!" she threw herself at him and hugged him, before taking the nail polish and picking up five more of them. "And I'll probably never find it again, so I'm buying lots."

Kris stared at Harry in obvious admiration, "How did you do that?" he asked. "I've known her for most of her life and I've never been able to find the right shade. The first cosmetic store you walk into with her, the first nail polish you chose, is _the_ shade! How?"

Harry looked after Justine. "It's the exact shade of Draco's eyes," he replied softly. "They have the exact same favourite drink, you remember I asked if Draco was here when I saw it on the tray in the shop. They have the same favourite colour – he loves the colour of her dress as well … she never did get over him, did she?"

"The drink was _mine_," Justine said, returning from the cash register, her purchases in her bag, "The song … I started liking them _after_ Draco and I were through. The colour … I can't explain." She was starting to look angry again, and sparks were appearing around her hands.

Kris reached into his pocket and withdrew a small paper bag quickly, "Here, I got you another present," he told her, and she squealed and grabbed it, unwrapping it as quickly as she could. Kris grinned at Harry, "Works every time," he said. Justine laughed and she pulled out a tiny monkey on a key chain. It was grinning at them and had a blue patch on it's stomach. Justine jiggled it around for awhile, then handed it to Harry.

Harry smiled slightly, and they walked to where they'd left the horses, who were still there and came cantering over to meet them. Tanya, Kris and Justine quickly saddled the horses while Harry and Ax unshrunk their brooms and mounted, taking off and circling around waiting for the others to mount.

While the three horse riders headed off, Harry and Ax raced each other again for awhile. Finally, Kris, who'd been watching them with a calculating look for awhile, called out to Harry. "Hey, can I have a go on your broom?"

"Sure," Harry replied, landing easily and dismounting. "Why?"

"I want to see which is better," Kris replied, sliding to the ground and throwing the reins up over the saddle. Loki kept going, and when Harry approached, she gave him a look and pranced ahead. Harry sighed and fell back to walk between Tanya and Justine. Tanya was looking happy because, riding Isis, she was actually taller than Harry if he was on the ground.

"What is your obsession about being taller than people?" Harry asked.

"Because I'm constantly reminded that I'm short," Tanya replied grimly.

"Who would make a big deal of it?" Harry asked, not really getting it.

"Ax," Tanya replied.

As they came closer and closer to Hogwarts, while Ax and Kris raced overhead, Justine became grimmer and grimmer, and hardly responded to anything that Harry was saying. When Ron accidentally found his way into a funny story that Harry was telling to try and get Justine to cheer up, her hands started sparking.

"Justine, if you can hardly deal with hearing Ron's name, how are you going to cope with being in the same building as he is?" Harry asked quietly.

Justine thought about this for a moment, "I hadn't really given the matter much thought … with great difficulty I suppose."

"Justine, you'll be playing Quidditch against him tomorrow," Tanya told him, "You can get pretty violent on a Quidditch pitch – with Ron there and your powers acting up, what are you going to do?"

"Shit," Justine muttered. "Wait! I know. Harry, I know that Magai's can put spells on people to block their powers. Could you block mine? Just until tomorrow night or something, long enough for me to calm down and not kill Ron in the match?"

"You could just not play," Harry remarked, unwilling to try magic like what Justine was suggested, not when practicing on a live subject without testing it first.

"No way," Justine said flatly. "I won't do that. I'll go to jail before I let my team down. If you want a best friend tomorrow night, however stupid he might be, I suggest you listen to me."

Justine dismounted lightly from Anubis and stood in front of Harry. Tanya pulled up Isis and watched them – she wasn't particularly worried. She didn't completely understand the significance of what was about to happen, but she trusted Harry's ability, and Justine's opinions. If Justine said it was possible, she had no doubt that it was, and if it was possible, she had no doubt that Harry could do it.

Harry hesitated a second more, "I don't know if this is a good idea," he said.

"It is," Justine assured him. "Just get on with it already!"

Harry reached out and put a hand on each of Justine's temples, closing his eyes. She closed her own, and Tanya gasped as suddenly the air around Justine turned the negative black of her magic, forming an aura around her, flaring powerfully, out of control. She pulled Isis back a step without even noticing that she had.

Before Justine's magic could escape, the air around Harry blazed as well, and Tanya gasped again, because his magic was so beautiful. It was a rainbow haze, flashing with sparkles of silver, gold and every other colour she could imagine. The magic swept from Harry to encircle Justine's power, and slowly pressed it closer and closer into her body. Finally her skin was sparkling with rainbows, and there was no trace at all of her own power in it's physical manifestation.

Kris and Ax, seeing what was going on, had suddenly raced back to the other three dismounting in a hurry and racing over to Justine. They weren't sure what Harry had done, but it had involved magic and if he'd hurt Justine, no matter how much they'd liked him, he would pay.

"It's ok," Justine told them, and explained what she'd asked Harry to do.

Kris and Ax didn't like it, but they accepted that it was Justine's decision, and soon enough had taken off again and were racing away. Justine, only a little bit unsteady on her feet, mounted Anubis again and they carried on to Hogwarts.

Standing at the gates to Hogwarts, Kris and Ax were standing at the gates, brooms in hand. Kris was looking smug and Ax wasn't looking particularly happy. "Who won?" Tanya asked interestedly.

"I did," Kris said happily, "On both brooms."

"I haven't ridden a broom for so long," Ax said, "I'm out of practice."

"No, you just suck," Kris replied calmly.

"Don't make me bring up you and tennis," Ax threatened.

"Tennis?" Harry asked, not quite sure how this related to flying in the least.

"Kris sucks at tennis," Ax smirked, "He can't play games where there isn't _any_ chance of tackling your opponent. He's to physical for rackets and balls. I, however, am rather good at tennis."

"If you do say so yourself," Tanya muttered under her breath.

"Yes, that," Ax agreed.

Harry took his broom and fly toward the castle, almost wishing he was still in Hogsmeade, not particularly feeling like returning to Hogwarts. He'd just found out that Ron was an idiot, Hermione wasn't talking to him because he actually believed Justine when she told him what happened, and he really liked the Australians. He would much rather spend the time with them.

The moment he walked into the Entrance Hall, he ran into a bunch of teachers who'd just come together. Apparently they were looking for something and had come together to report that they hadn't found it. When the doors opened, they all turned around and gaped when they saw Harry standing calmly before them.

"Potter, we've been looking for you _everywhere_!" Flitwick squeaked at him, a little admonishingly.

"Why?" Harry enquired.

"Professor Dumbledore wishes to speak with you about the fact that fourteen of the DA students are unconscious in the Hospital Wing. Mr. Campbell and Mr. Thorpe-Townsend have already been summoned, Miss Snape, Miss Bussa, Mr. Crompton and Mr. Kidson are also being looked for in regards to the same incident," McGonagall informed him.

"What have Saul and Jeffery said?" Harry asked.

"They refuse to speak, I believe that is why the rest of you are wanted. Please follow me," McGonagall. Harry looked regretfully out the door, wishing that he could go and warn the Kallaix students of what was about to occur, but knowing he had no choice but to follow McGonagall.

* * *

While the Kallaixians rode and flew to the stables to unsaddle the horses. Ax stayed around to chat, and Justine ended up making him put the tack away so that he wasn't just standing there "looking cute".

"But that's what I do best," Ax protested, carrying the heavy saddle over to its normal resting place.

The others laughed and, once they were finished unsaddling the horses and putting all the tack away, they headed down to the cruiser, talking merrily. "Well, that was a good shopping trip," Justine remarked, "I found the perfect dress _and_ the perfect nail polish. How good was that?"

As they walked onto the boat, Adam looked up at them from where he'd been sitting on one of the deck chairs. "Someone's in trouble," he remarked with a grin. Tegan, sitting next to him, scowled at Justine.

"How dare you?" she demanded.

"What?" Justine asked, confused. Was Tegan yelling at her for hurting Ron or something? Tegan had tried to kill Ron often enough herself, apparently.

"You went out and caused pain and _you didn't invite me_," Tegan growled, eyes narrowed. "That's just not cool. I feel so ignored! And on top of that, you went shopping without me!"

"You don't _like_ shopping," Justine pointed out in confusion.

"No, but I'd have appreciated it if you'd asked if I had needed to go to Hogsmeade," Tegan told her, "You're lucky I already have my dress for tomorrow night, otherwise I'd really not be happy right now, because I'd have to go and chose a new one on my own. I'm not talking to you now," she got up and walked over to the pool, not looking back at Justine at all.

Justine thought quickly, "I brought you a present," she said, and Kris and Ax grinned at each other. Justine wasn't the only one who could be distracted with the offering of a present.

"Really?" Tegan suddenly spun around and bounced over to Justine, grinning widely and holding out her hand.

Justine dug in her back, buying time while she frantically tried to think of something that would work for Tegan. Giving her hug, like Ax had done to Justine, just wouldn't work. Her fingers came in contact with the Honeydukes bag and she dug through it until she found something she remembered buying.

She pulled a lolly pop out and handed it to Tegan. "I searched through half of Honeydukes to find that for you," she told Tegan, "It's guaranteed to last for twelve hours of constant sucking."

Tegan accepted the sweet and threw her arms around Justine, "Thank you!" she cried, and immediately unwrapped the lollypop and stuck it in her mouth, while Kris turned to Adam.

"What's this about being in trouble?" he asked.

"We got a message a couple of hours ago asking where you were because they wanted to talk to you about the fact that fourteen Hogwarts students turned up unconscious in the Hospital Wing. Saul and Jeffery had to go and talk to Dumbledore because they brought the students in," Adam replied.

"Well that's alright then," Kris said with a sigh of relief. "We all know that Saul and Jeffery won't tell Dumbledore anything unless Justine says that they can. Knowing them they won't have said anything at all…"

"Now I feel bad. They've been stuck up there, not talking, for hours. How much must this be killing Saul?" Justine remarked. "Come on, I guess we'd better go up there and help out a little."

"May as well," Kris agreed.

* * *

They were ushered into Dumbledore's office a few minutes later, having been cornered by teachers the moment they stepped into the Entrance Hall, who weren't listening when they said that they were going to see Dumbledore anyway. For some reason they seemed to assume that the group was intending to run off and hide.

Harry was standing in front of Dumbledore, hands folded across his chest and a stony expression on his face, not saying anything. Behind him, Jeffery and Saul were sitting in chairs, looking anywhere but at Dumbledore and also determinedly silent. Ginny Weasley had also been called, but she was just looking confused and repeating that she wasn't sure what had happened, because she'd been unconscious until the very end.

"Now, Miss Snape would you kindly inform as to what has happened in my school?" Dumbledore enquired coolly.

"Sorry Justine, we let slip that you were involved before we stopped talking," Saul said, looking ashamed.

"Don't worry about," Justine replied, and was about to go on further when Kris stepped in front her.

"We want a lawyer," he informed Dumbledore firmly.

"You want a _what_?" Dumbledore asked.

"A lawyer," Kris repeated. "As members of the Australian embassy we deserve proper legal representation."

Dumbledore blinked, and Harry smirked slightly. This had to have been the first time that the Headmaster of Hogwarts had been asked, by a student, for legal representation in any matter … least of all when said student was apparently in a lot of trouble.

"Do you have a preference for who that lawyer is?" Dumbledore asked, quickly accepting the situation and moving on.

"Yes. Jean Wadsworth, our Headmistress," Kris replied.

Dumbledore gave Kris another surprised look – most people wouldn't request another teacher when they were in trouble, but went over to his fireplace anyway, throwing green powder into it and sticking his head into the flames. A moment later, Dumbledore stood back and the fire went brilliantly emerald green. Harry and Ginny were just looking at one another in amazement.

Out of the fire came a very short woman with a round face, big blue eyes and girly lashes who was wearing her short hair in pretty curls around her face. She was wearing a black power suit and smiling pleasantly. When she saw Kris, she sighed and said in a voice that was startling Ocker, "Lemme guess – he wanted a bloody lawyer?" she demanded.

Harry and Ginny looked at one another; it seemed that the Australian students had a Headmistress who was jut as out there as they themselves were. "Don't cha know it," Kris replied.

"Every time you get in trouble you call for a damn lawyer. Have you ever thought of arguing your case on your own?"

"Is it a crime to want to have the best legal advice as possible?" Kris demanded and batted his eyelashes.

"Ooh, you're so lucky I like you," the woman told him laughingly. "Mr Dumbledore, may I have a moment over there with my students to discover what the bloody hell they've done this time?"

Dumbledore smiled at the woman, "My dear woman, please," he gestured to the lower level of his office.

Jean looked around at her head students, her prefects, the pretty red head that reminded her somewhat of Tanya and the infamous Harry Potter. She recognised him immediately of course. "So, did you break something, someone, a serious rule or all of the above?" she asked with a lift of the eyebrow.

Justine, very high speed, whispered out the entire story.

"Ah. All of the above. We really do need to fill Mr Dumbledore in on this one, Justine, because if any of those students are seriously hurt, you could be in some huge trouble." Jean said slowly, "We also need to get across firmly that it was only by the actions of others that you lost control, and a Magai does deserve certain considerations."

Justine had casually left out that her powers were blocked, she had just said it was Harry who had helped her resume control. "Okay, lets see if I can fix this mess I've made."

She moved over in front of Dumbledore and took a deep breath. "I'm very sorry for any actions I took this morning that may have lead to the infliction of harm upon any of the students of your school. Unfortunately I had lost control of my Magai ability, and at the same time I was given some disturbing information. This lead to my emotions getting the better of me and I attacked Mr Weasley. Any student who was in the room with him was unintentionally caught in the brunt of my anger. I understand if I need to be punished for my actions but I ask heartfeltedly that you do not take any anger you may have with me out on the Kallaix team, as they were in fact, the ones who stopped the incident from intensifying." Justine stepped back into line beside Kris and Jean Wadsworth.

"Nice. Dad couldn't have twisted what really happened better." Kris whispered in her ear.

"I spend way too much time at your house not to be that damn good." Justine grinned wickedly for a fleeting moment then focused once more as Jean began to speak.

"Professor. While I understand that at your school has been affected by this situation I really am going to have to step in and in this instance and put my foot down, I will punish her when she returns to my school. We have very different styles of running our schools but I believe that we are both on the same sides in this war and the significance Justine could play. She is a Magai..." Jean gave Dumbledore a significant look.

Justine looked at the Teachers ... Yep she was a Magai, how was that significant to the war effort? "Um. Is there something I should know?" Justine asked her teacher.

"Not right now, no." Jean said, in the particular tone of voice that all Kallaix students knew not to mess with.

Justine hung her head sadly - even though she knew better than to question her Headmistress when that tone was used, if she was important for anything, she'd rather know.

"I am aware of her status," Dumbledore said quietly, his attention focused entirely on Jean Wadsworth, "But said status has no significance in this particular situation. She has harmed a student, and it happened _here_ - the forms clearly state, and were signed, to say that she is under the jurisdiction of Hogwarts during the event, and that her actions are punishable by Hogwarts law. I have wavered this often enough already for serious offences against Hogwarts law ... I cannot do so again."

Jean took a half step back, "Sorry Kristopher - you're out of your league here. Match point to Professor Dumbledore."

"But _Jean_!" Kris protested, "You're da _man_!"

"Da _wo_man," Jean corrected. "This match goes to Dumbledore ... but the war ain't over yet sonny boy. _YOU CRAZY OLD COOT!_" she screamed at Dumbledore, "I'm removing my students right now! As members of the Australian embassy, the very idea of this punishment is _outrageous!_ You know ... you're an idiot, you say that their behaviour has been bad for some time now, but at the same time you never notified us. You have let this situation arise, where you have to punish _my Head Girl_ for something that is, in essence, your fault entirely."

"Ma'am, I understand that you upset, but please, I must request that you do not direct your displeasure in the form of anger at my person. I am just attempting to comply with the rules that govern my school, just as you are with yours. I have two issues which must be address - Miss Snape you have laid no less than fourteen students in the Hospital wing, one who is in a semi-comatic condition."

Justine rolled her eyes to side, not prepared to play guilty, as Jean mumbled, "You said a _couple_ of students got hurt."

"They aren't hurt, just unconscious," Jeffery remarked darkly, "The only student actually _hurt_ was Weasley, and he deserved it."

Dumbledore turned to face Jeffery, momentarily forgetting his quarrel with the Australian Headmistress, "Now we're getting somewhere - why was Mr. Weasley injured? And why only him?"

Jeffery and Saul exchanged looks, then clamped their teeth shut audibly and crossed their arms, glanced at Jean, before staring determinedly at the ceiling.

"Good work boys," Jean said with a firm nod, "But if you know something important, you should probably think about telling Professor Dumbledore. Completely up to you, of course."

Jeffery and Saul turned from the ceiling to Justine questioningly. She looked back at them for a moment, and the three of them seemed to be having a conversation with their eyes. Finally, Justine sighed, "I am so _sick_ of telling this story. I swear, the next time someone asks, I'm going to tell them it's because I've decided to become a drag queen and move to New Orleans and no one's being bloody supportive!"

"I thought Drag Queens were guys?" Tanya questioned, brows knit in confusion.

Justine gave her a look, and Tanya shut up. "Anyway. Very quickly - two years ago Draco found a memory of me cheating on him in a pensieve-"

"Yes, I'm sorry to say I know all about that ... it was my pensieve that was stolen and used to store the memory."

"Well what you obviously didn't know, or you wouldn't be making me tell this story, is that the memory was _fake_."

"Miss Snape, I'm afraid that's not possible. I know for a fact that a pensieve will only accept a person's _real_ memories. There is no way to fool them. Unless..." he began to think hard.

"Yes, Mr. Dumbledore, it's incorrect," Justine replied, "Not only memories are accepted - dreams are as well. If a memory is created, inserted into someone's mind, which then validates it as a dream, since it didn't actually _happen_, then you can put it into a stupid pensieve, which is exactly what Ron Weasley's older brothers realised two years ago. They acted on their theory, and hey presto, my life is ruined. Two years later, I find out about it and try to kill Ron. There, happy?" Justine's eyes were shining with tears, and Kris put an arm around her. Saul bounced over to her as well and tickled her.

"I believe that this ... Ron Weasley, whoever he may be, should be punished for so severely harming the welfare of another student at his school," Jean said, looking happy to find herself back on grounds where she knew _exactly_ where she stood.

"Twenty points will be removed from Gryffindor, now that these events have come to light," said Dumbledore, with the air of one making a huge concession.

"THAT'S IT?" Jean asked, "Removal of points? You aren't even going to call a Student Trial? What, you deal with all the student matters yourself?" Jean asked, uncomprehending.

"No, that is what the Heads of the Houses are for," Dumbledore was just as uncomprehending as his Australian counterpart.

"You people really are archaic, get with the times already" Jean said, shaking her head.

"Look I'm sorry Miss, but Hogwarts is one of the most prestigious schools in Britain, and Professor Dumbledore is it's best Headmaster to date," Harry said, staring at Jean and completely the missing the look of upmost relief and joy on Dumbledore's face as he spoke. "This situation can be dealt with - you have different schools and they run differently. Stop sizing each other up."

As suddenly as he had exploded, Harry calmed down and took his seat, expression cool, but defiant. Jean and Dumbledore both glanced at him. "Your right Harry," Kris was the first to speak, "Although there is a loophole to work in the favour of Kallaix in this circumstance."

Saul suddenly piped up, "Justine did indeed break the rules and has been offered a punishment by the headmaster of her school. Dumbledore's argument stands to say that the punishment should be delivered by Hogwarts due to the signed agreement that we would abide by your rules in the entry forms, but Professor, it is not your name on the forms..."

"SEVIE HAS THE POWER!" Justine finally yelled, "He's our sponsor teacher, and only he has the jurisdiction to punish me, and as my family member that control is passed onto a non-bias representative of his choice!"

"So we're only screwed if he choses Dumbledore." Jeffery said. "And right when we were in the lead. Our points better not be penalised."

Five minutes later Severus Snape swept into the room and went into conference with Dumbledore, then Justine in turn. "So what do you thinks gonna happen?" Kris asked Saul and Jeffery, the three of which had slowly backed away from the group, joining Ax and Tanya in the background.

"I figured it would be better if we stayed to the back of this situation, I have a tendency of letting my anger get the better of me and half the time Tanya speaks before she thinks." Ax said to the group. "We cant let Justine get punished, she's to fragile, she wont be able to sit through a detention or a ridiculous punishment. Harry has made her power internal so she cant hurt others, but she can still hurt herself with that power block."

Kris's attention was recaptured by the Slytherin Head as he came back to the Headmaster. Out of the ear shot of most in the room, and not paying attention to Harry who sat still to one side of Dumbledore Snape said. "Professor, Weasley has, I presume, been given a harsh punishment?" Snape spat Ron's name like it was poison.

"Twenty points have been removed from Gryffindor" Dumbledore said in a placating tone.

"_That's it?_" Snape seemed furious. "The boy has harmed Justine in ways you can only imagine, and you _remove points from Gryffindor?_"

Dumbledore frankly looked back at Snape. "Severus, I had to take into account the punishment that I know you yourself will seek to deliver upon Ronald's head. I must implore you to remember he is a student in our care..."

"I DON'T CARE IF HE IS! HE WILL PAY!"

From the other side of the room, where she was getting hugs from Kris, Justine guessed what Sevie was talking about. "Severus. Please just let this go, I just want to pretend none of this happened, so can you just punish me already so I can go... I wont even argue. This is just taking so long."

Kris stared at Justine in shock, her eyes were full of tears and black. The white, iris and pupil all pitch black and sparkling. Jean came forward. "I propose that Justine be barred from the UYC round three, that she be confined to her room for the evening, and that when she comes home, she deals with a week's grounding to the Wentworth commons."

"That sounds fair." Dumbledore and Severus both said in a rush, wanting nothing more than to calm the Magai down.

"Okay, I can deal with that." Justine said, just as Saul decided to tickle her. Justine gave a shriek of surprised laughter, "What was that for?"

"I don't have to play 'silent and serious' guy anymore! Thank you thank you thank you!" Saul bounced around the group hugging everyone, including Dumbledore. When he hugged Jean, she surprised everyone and hugged him back.

"Obscurely enough, I've missed you Saul. Your brother Isaac just isn't the same, in the seat of the McEwan prefect."

"Damn straight, he _isn't_ me," Saul replied.

"Oh, so I suppose Daniel's completely replaced me as the best Head Boy Kallaix has ever seen?" Kris demanded. "That's just _not cool_."

"It's not my fault you aren't as missable as me," Saul muttered.

"Daniel? He is doing a rather good job ... perhaps we should replace you permanently, and start up a new tradition of having the Head Students come from sixth year from now on..." Jean remarked thoughtfully.

Kris gave a slight sniff and turned away.

It had all been arranged that the students were going to share a quick dinner before the Great Hall would be used for the UYC that night. So the Kallaixians got their stuff together and made their way up to the Castle about five minutes early to get there on time. On the way they had given an over exited Winky permission to clean up if she wanted to. Justine was happy that her ban from the UYC did not prevent her from coming to dinner, although she would have to leave before the event was set up.

"That elf has serious issues," Kris said, "I mean she thinks your the bomb when you ask her to give the boys bathroom and dunny some extra attention. Honestly!" Kris shook his head.

Justine smiled, "She just likes to take care of us, and personally I think she's adorable. I want to keep her!"

"And where, Pray tell would you keep said elf? In your school trunk?" Ax asked blandly

"No," Justine put in happily, "I'd send her home to look after my mom."

* * *

They entered the Great Hall and moved to the far side of the room to take their place at the Hufflepuff table. The Hogwarts tables were so big that they could easily accommodate for the extra twenty or so students at each table on top of the Students that belonged there. The whole of the Hogwarts School would be sharing dinner tonight as in a rare occurrence for the Hunt, they did not get banished to their common rooms for meals.

Justine took her place between Kris and Saul, absentmindedly looking around the room, remembering the past, and the good times she had had here. There were groups of friends, red, green, blue and yellow friends laughing and chatting merrily as they waited for their dinner.

Emerald eyes clashed with Silver eyes and held.

Draco had grown had grown since their relationship ended some two years ago. He was taller, had grown into his once scrawny frame and was now incredibly well built; Justine had to admit, with seemingly natural grace and poise. His face was less pointed, now brutally handsome with longish silver-blond hair, a similar shade to Alyson's.

Draco looked back at _her_. Shockingly he found himself thinking this is the first time in years that she's looked at me like that, without fear, hatred, free from any sorrow. Her eyes, if anything, were a more dazzling shade of green and her once shoulder length black hair had grown down to the small of her back and was more of a chocolate brown colour. He had no doubt that it had been done with colouring charms - hair just didn't come naturally in quite that shade.

Damn. She'd grown into the beautiful creature that he, in his naïveté, had once predicted.

The spell was broken when Kristopher - the asshole - lent over and whispered something in her ear, pointing to the door way, where Padma Patil was standing. She had been discharged from the hospital wing that morning, because she was pretty much completely healthy again, and they needed the beds after_ her_ latest temper tantrum.

Most of the schools ignored the new arrival, probably not even aware that she had been injured in any way, but there was an exception in the Kallaix students. All bar two of the ten people there were staring at Padma with expressions ranging from open dislike, to disgust, to hatred. The only who seemed to have no expression her face was Alyson, and Draco remembered that the girl had always been somehow different from everyone else, never seeming to actually hate everyone. The other who was not looking at Padma with dislike was Ax, who had a look of cold calculation that was even scarier than the aforementioned emotions.

Noting that Kallaix students obviously dislike Pansy, and despite the fact that he found her more than a little imbecilic for a Ravenclaw, Draco decided that from now on he would be nice to Padma. He was sitting beside Harry, and there was a spare seat on Harry's other side. Before he had the opportunity to tell Harry to shuffle over, Padma headed for the seat on the other side of Harry.

Just before she sat down, Harry held up a hand, bringing her up short, "I'm sorry, but that seat is already taken," Harry said, tone icy.

Padma stared at him in complete incomprehension, "By_ who_?" she demanded, her voice a little shrill.

Ginny was sitting two seats down on the opposite side of the table, and, upon hearing what Harry had said, stood up and walked around the table, coming around to sit down next to Harry, "By _me_," she replied.

Padma blinked, tears forming in her eyes, and Draco's old dislike flared. Stupid girl, crying whenever _anything_ didn't go her way, he thought to himself. "But-" Padma started, her voice carrying her incomprehension and distress.

"But _nothing_," both Harry and Ginny said almost simultaneously. "Find somewhere else to sit, Padma," Harry continued on his own.

Padma turned and flounced off, taking the seat that Ginny had vacated, next to Hermione, who rested a consoling hand on Padma's shoulder. Padma brushed it off angrily and Hermione looked over at Harry, "That wasn't very nice," she told Harry, "You did that on purpose!"

Harry turned away and engaged Ginny in conversation, pretending that he hadn't even heard Hermione speak. "Why don't we all go up and see Ron?" Hermione asked, in an effort to breach the gap that had been created in their group by the attention-seeking Kallaixians, _Kallaix students_; Hermione corrected herself mentally, to avoid using Justine's word for her schoolmates. "He might have regained consciousness."

"Why would we _want_ to?" Ginny demanded in a voice fraught with emotion.

"I would advise that you stay away from Ron, Hermione. He's not worth your time," Harry added icily.

"Oh, so you're turning into Percy now?" Hermione demanded, "Like that letter he sent Ron about_ you_ in fifth year? That's just being _sick_, I'm going to see Ron and make sure he's OK." Percy still hadn't made up with the Weasley's, who were beginning to despair that he ever would.

"I could almost hope he isn't, he deserves the pain," Harry said, and Ginny looked confused, half supportive, half against what Harry was saying.

"I don't know what to believe any more," she said, standing and walking over to the window, staring out over the night-hidden grounds.

Draco caught Harry's eye. "Tell me what the fuck is going on Harry. I'm not going to listen to anymore of this 'later' bull, what the hell is happening."

Harry looked at his step-brother with a pained expression. "Draco, I just can't. I made a promise that I just can't break."

Draco looked away. "So this is how it's going to happen. You withdraw back into your precious little Gryffindor world where if you're not in the red, you're out?" He felt as though he was being kicked back out of Harry's confidence. Something was going on, and it centralized around _Ron_ and the _Kallaix Students_? "And I thought that when we swore not to keep secrets you meant it."

Harry looked as though Draco had slapped him. "But it's not my secret to tell!"

"Fuck off Potter. I just don't care anymore." Draco deliberately turned his back on Harry. He thought he found a friend in Harry. Damn! He needed to think, what was all that noise?

* * *

Kris and Saul were mere inches from the _Holy plate_ when Tegan screamed "**WAIT!"**

Saul turned to the werewolf with a look of indignation. "Tegan, what you see before you is the Australian Holy grail, the highest level of food, the holy slices of doom, _DAMMIT TEGAN! IT'S VEGEMITE TOAST_! Why shouldn't I eat my fair share."

Tegan looked at him gravely. "What, pray tell, will you do if it turns out to be promite?"

Every Australian except Alyson pulled back with an audible gasp. "It can't be," Saul said with a tragic expression on his face.

"I am willing to take the risk and test out this substance on the grounds of the possibility that it might be promite," Tegan said solemnly. "For the good of my country, I will sacrifice myself."

"Oh, you're so noble," Justine said. "We'll cheer you on, but hurry up – if it's vegemite toast we don't want it getting cold … if it's promite, Alyson will just have to eat it all on her own."

Tegan edged over to the plate of toast and touched a finger delicately to the topping on one of the pieces of toast, and licked her finger carefully before letting out a whoop and grabbing two pieces of toast. "IT'S VEGEMITE!" she yelled, and everyone bar Alyson on the Kallaix table lunged forward almost simultaneously for the platter of toast and proceeded to stuff themselves with it.

At the Hogwarts table Leon looked up, having thought he heard the magical word 'vegemite' – upon seeing the Kallaix students attacking _something_ on their table, he was pretty sure his suspicions were confirmed, and leapt up onto the table, stepping over a roast dinner and leaping to the ground again hurtling across the hall to the table, just as Tegan, Justine and Tanya, each holding a piece of toast, started singing:

"_We're happy little vegemites _

_As bright as bright can be_

_We all enjoy our vegemite_

_For breakfast, lunch and tea,_

_Our mummy's say we're growing stronger_

_Every single week_

_Because we love our vegemite_

_We all ADORE our vegemite_

_It puts a rose in every cheek_

_We're growing stronger every week!_"

As the song finished, several more people from the surrounding tables got up and approached. One of them was Electra, who joined Leon at the platter of toast, commenting that she had tasted vegemite in Australia when on holiday some time before and had never been able to find it in Egypt. Leon promised that if she sent him an owl, he'd send back a jar of vegemite whenever she needed it.

Adam called out to Oliver, who was on the staff table, saying that the Irish boy had to come and try vegemite. To everyone's surprise, when Oliver stood up to come down, so did Severus, who took several pieces of toast and went to stand with Justine, giving her one and eating another himself as they spoke quietly together.

Harry and Ginny stood up from the Hogwarts table and walked over as well, because Harry hadn't been able to convince Draco to talk to him again, and the blond Slytherin was still ignoring him. Draco had called him 'Potter' which he never did these days unless he was either really pissed off with Harry, or really happy about something … Harry was fairly sure that it was the former in this particular case. Needing to calm down and get away from people who just seemed to hate him, Harry decided to go and try this vegemite – besides, he had heard Saul praising the stuff highly the day when he had gone to the boat with his friends, back when they had all been his friends.

Like Ginny, he wasn't sure what to think any more.

Also, from Hogwarts came Neville, Seamus and Dean. When Seamus had decided that he liked Vegemite, as had Oliver, Ax, Oliver and Seamus sang the vegemite song in all out Irish accents. Justine was standing in front of them, pretending to conduct them, while at the same delivering the words very quickly and quietly so that Oliver and Seamus could sing them, because they didn't know them already. Ax knew the words perfectly and sang perfectly.

Finally, Dumbledore stood up. "I believe," he said quietly, and everyone, even the celebrating Australians, quieted down to listen to him, "That it is time to give you a point's update."

Everyone let out a brief cheer before quieting down again to let Dumbledore talk. "In first place, Kallaix Academy of Australia, on four hundred and three points," he said, then paused for the expected break out from the Australians.

"Oh yeah! Who's your daddy!" Kris yelled.

"I'm your daddy!" Saul yelled back, then the entire table went quiet and turned to stare expectantly at Dumbledore, who was looking expectantly at them.

"That's it?" he enquired, his voice carrying a tone of polite disbelief.

"Yup," Saul replied, and Dumbledore smiled faintly.

"In that case, in second place, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, on three hundred and thirty and two point five." Saul and Kris broke out again when they realised just how far in the lead Kallaix was.

"In third place, Thundreds …"

* * *

Once the scores had all been announced, Severus came over to Justine. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to escort you to the boat now," he told her.

Justine looked at him, "You actually have to escort me?" she demanded. "I can't be trusted to lock myself in my room?"

"The Headmaster wishes that I come with you and ensure that you have done as requested," Severus replied. "I do not believe it to be necessary, but orders are orders."

"Fine," Justine sighed, and they left the Hall together, to the interested looks of the rest of the schools, all of whom were probably wondering what was going on and why Justine wasn't staying for the UYC.

On the walk to the boat, Justine looked up see clouds sweeping overhead, obscuring the stars. "Looks like rain," she remarked.

"It almost always looks like rain," Severus pointed out.

"Not where I come from," Justine said. "Rain's something to celebrate in Australia."

Severus took Justine to her room and waited while she called Winky for a moment. "Winky, you're a life saver," she told the little house elf.

"Little miss liked Winky's surprise?" Winky asked in delight.

"Little Miss loved Winky's surprise," Justine replied. "As did Little Miss's friends. You wouldn't happen to have any vegemite down here on the boat would you?"

"Winky has some vegemite. Winky got much much vegemite for Little Miss and her friends. Winky is thinking that they might be wanting more. Is Little Miss wanting more vegemite?"

"Yes, if it's not too much trouble," Justine replied.

"No trouble at all, Little Miss!" Winky disappeared to get some toast, and came back a few moments later with a second platter for her. Severus accepted Justine's offer of some toast for the walk back to the castle, and Justine closed the door to her bedroom, hearing her uncle go upstairs and lock the door at the top of the stairs so that she couldn't leave the confines of the below deck cabins.

Justine sighed and picked up a piece of toast to nibble on… it was going to be a long and boring night, unless she just went to sleep…

Come to think of it, sleep sounding _really_ good right now … she ate some more toast, then lay down on her bed and closed her eyes. She fell asleep in seconds.

* * *

Floating somewhere between sleep and reality, she groaned. Justine was never going to get back to sleep, she had woken up thirty minutes ago for some obscure reason. She had began to read a book assuming sleep would reclaim her eventually, but alas, no, she was still reading away. She was so wired, and the block on her powers was still there, Justine felt as though she had some sort of spiritual clamp on her very soul. She rolled over and kicked off the blanket, dropping the book on the floor and bundling under the silky sheets. Wait. Did the boat just _move_?

Justine sat bolt upright, the boat was swaying gently from side to side, and thunder was rumbling in the… HELLO! It was cracking right above them. Justine walked over to the window to find that the shutter was shut closing out the sound and light of outside. This was why she hadn't noticed the storm till now, so she swung it open. Her eyes opened wide and she saw that the Kallaix boat was definitely not taking the brunt of the storm, it was relatively untouched in a bubble of Dragon magic. Thunder rolled overhead and split the sky above the castle, throwing it into relief. Justine gasped at the sheer enormity of the castle in this light, it seemed to loom up over her.

Justine made the decision in that moment to go and spend the night with Sevie. Later that night she'd regret the decision. But it did seem like good idea at the time. I mean, come on, who thinks correctly at two in the morning?

Looking down at her attire, she figured she'd have to take her black cloak, the floor length white nightie with ribbon straps was, as Saul had said that weekend at Tanya's, very pretty, but it didn't really offer much protection to the rain. She slipped the cloak over her shoulders and walked to her bed stand, putting her trusty wand and her mobile in the deep pockets.

She slipped out of her room, into the hall and pressed her ear against the door of Kris's room. The light snoring brang a smile to her lips. She slipped up the stairs and into the bedlam of the storm. The deck was protected from the brunt of the rain by the bubble, but a light sprinkle on the surface of the pool was a tinkling and shivering. The deck chairs were looking soggy, and she almost slipped over twice on the shining deck. She had to pull the hood of her cloak up over her rapidly dampening hair.

She cautiously made her way down the ladder and out stepped out into the rain. It came down on her so fast she gasped and ran up the wharf and across the muddy grounds as fast as she could, finding the entrance path and even before she reached the doors she was cursing loudly at her lack of footwear.

Severus's rooms were in the dungeon, so she made her way towards the far side of the entrance hall.

Justine raised a hesitant hand and knocked on the door to Severus's room when she arrived, hoping he would be in bed and not out on an errand or prowling the hall for out-of-bed students. A second later her fears were laid to rest though, when Sevie opened the door glaring down at her. Students were probably terrified of that look, but Justine just rolled her eyes and grinned. He moved aside and let her in. She saw a flash of ginger fur streak under the bed, but didn't comment.

Severus looked down at his bedraggled little niece and smiled. "Don't tell me the high and mighty Justine is scared of the storm?" he asked, a spark lighting his cold eyes.

"No I thought you might be scared and need a hand to hold." Justine said as she tucked herself into his arms.

"Can't you tell I'm terrified? Argh, Justine you're drenched… and now so am I," Severus stood back from Justine and looked at her in mock malevolence. "What on earth possessed you to walk up to me in the rain," he pulled Justine over to the fireplace and she felt a warm tingle slip down her spine as Severus cast a warming and drying charm on her.

"So, Sevie, do you mind if I bunk down on your couch tonight, I don't think I want to swim back to the boat." Justine said as she inspected Severus's quarters. The furniture was all dark mahogany with leather inserts and panelling. The two chocolate leather armchairs that faced the fire had on them black leather cushions with silver embroidery, similar to the mat and the covers on the now dishevelled bed. "Nice room."

"Justine, as much as I thankyou for your approval of my décor, there is no need for you to 'bunk down'. Before you arrived I prepared one of the towers for your stay, as far as I know it still remains as it was." Severus got out a piece of paper from a desk, and handed it to her, "these were the directions I had prepared for you, now run along, your going to need sleep to win the Quidditch for tomorrow."

Justine kissed him on the cheek and headed for the door. "Damn I love ya Sevie."

* * *

Alyson and Tanya were sitting in the lounge room on the boat, huddled together. Tanya had been woken by the storm, and had heard Justine get up and had assumed that she was going up on deck for a moment. Figuring that when Justine returned, at least she'd have someone to talk to while she couldn't sleep, Tanya had gotten up, dressed and gone out to wait for her.

She'd found Alyson in the lounge, looking totally freaked out, and had asked what was wrong. Alyson had explained that the unicorn in her was freaking out at the fact that the boat was moving.

"Well, Justine will have an answer, she always does," Tanya said comfortingly and settled down beside Alyson to wait … and wait … and wait.

"We did pretty good in the Conference tonight," Tanya remarked, thinking that maybe if they talked, the time would pass faster and Justine would arrive. "I mean, Jacque's arguments on Technology in Magical Schools was pretty could. Obviously, using Kallaix as a living example made it easier. I don't think that anyone really understood what she meant when she said that using an Adamantium casing on the electrical circuitry … but they really could associate when she talked about it being advantageous and how it could give Muggleborns a sense of identity when they first entered magical schools. A pity she only got a six for that, really."

"Adam, on the other hand," Alyson remarked, "I didn't even know he could talk like that! He scored a _perfect thirty_ with his argument that there should be a Western Magisphere Annual Quidditch knockout so that the students could test each other out and get to know one another more easily…"

"You know, I don't think she's coming back," Tanya remarked. "Maybe we should go and look for her?"

"I guess," Alyson said slowly, not looking particularly happy at the prospect of going into the middle of a storm, but she followed when Tanya got up and walked out onto the deck.

"I love McEwie," Alyson said, noticing the bubble around them that prevented all but a light spray of water actually making it to the boat. "But I don't see Justine …"

"I don't think she's on the boat any more … that means we're going to go and look for her … who knows where she is?"

* * *

Justine placed a hand on the _gorgeous_ banister and walked up the stairs to the bedrooms, screw Severus's room, this place was beautiful, and the boy had some wicked taste.

"Last door on the left on the first landing…" Justine muttered to herself and put out her. wand and wandered forward. There was enough light from the frequent flashes for Justine to see the door, it lay at the end of a corridor, which had the lower half of the walls in a honey coloured wood panelling, and the upper half in a pale cream. A palm tree sat under the window at the end of the hall, which was hung with white chiffon curtains. She approached her bedroom door and she gently and as silently ass he could swung it open. It was dark in the room, but she could make out the bed on the far side of the room.

It was eerie being in the tower alone. It really seemed as if she wasn't. She knew Sevie had told her that the tower was empty but still. She slipped the cloak from her shoulders, making sure the mobile and wand were secure in the pocket, and slipped into the bed.

She sighed in happiness when she felt the warmth inside the bed, "the sheets must be self warming," she thought to herself as she drifted away…

* * *

"I know!" Alyson said, "Let's use Jacque's equipment! She's got bugs on all of us, and it's all in the wheel house. We'll be able to find Justine and go to her and get off this damn boat!"

In the wheel house, they settled in front of Jacque's monitors and looked for the spot labelled 'Justine'.

"What's she doing so close to another dot? Who's dot is that?" Tanya asked, "She hasn't got a boyfriend, has she?"

"Shit," Alyson said, one of the rare times that Tanya had ever heard the unicorn-girl use a swear word. "That's Draco Malfoy! We have to get up there _now!_"

The pair of them flew from the boat, heading as fast as they could for the tower in which Justine was located.

* * *

Draco heard the door open and close, and had to struggle not to sigh. It must be one of the stupid girls – Pansy or Daphne, he'd assume – trying to get some sort of late night favour or something. He hated this. Why couldn't they just accept that he didn't like them, and never had, and leave him alone? He sat, up ready to tell the girl, when she came near enough, to bugger off. What was this? He was using stupid Australian _slang_ now? He would tell the girl to _go away_.

The bed creaked as someone pulled back the covers and snuggled in, and Draco was about to say, "Don't get comfortable, you aren't staying here," when the girl's smell reached him. Roses and vanilla … the only girl he knew with that scent was _her_. He stayed stock still, listening to the breathing of the person next to him.

He heard her sigh, before her breathing slowed and he knew that she had fallen asleep. Shit, what was going on here? Someone came to _his_ bed, then just settled in and fell asleep? Without even asking? Was this some sort of prank? Someone had realised what _she_ smelt like, and was trying to get back at him for some imagined slight by sending someone with that scent to his bedroom…

He thought for a moment, then accessed his Magai powers to the light room just a little, so dimly that it would not disturb the person beside him. The moment he saw her, his heart froze and his breathing almost stopped.

It _was_ her. What was she doing here? What was going on?

Then he remembered – this was the tower that had been prepared for the Kallaix students, and this room was supposed to be hers. She hadn't turned the light on when she game inside – she didn't know that he was here. She wouldn't know that the DC had claimed the tower once it became apparent that the Kallaix students had no interest in it.

He thought for a moment. How could he get out of this? Could he just get up, walk out and bunk in with Harry for the night, pretend that they'd never been here and that _she_ had never come? He looked around the room. All his stuff was here, arranged exactly as he liked it. He couldn't move that now … dammit, what was he going to do?

Eventually it came to him. The only way that this could work would be if he woke _her_ up. There just was no other way. He paused for a moment, preparing himself, then placed a hand over _her_ mouth and poked her in the shoulder, knowing from past experience that this was the best was to wake her up.

Justine jolted awake, and screamed silently against his hand, which he was thankful he had thought to place there. At least this way none of the DC would have to know what happened, and the moment _she_ was gone, he could go back to happily pretending that this had never happened. 

"Stop screaming," he hissed at her. "Do you want to wake everyone?"

She recognised his voice and shrank away from him. For a moment he felt a stab of pain – once she would have welcomed him with a smile, now her eyes filled with terror at the sound of his voice … but he pushed the pain away. He didn't care any more. She was a cheating little bitch and he wanted nothing more to do with her. She didn't deserve his pain.

She reached up and pulled his hand away from her mouth, glaring at him, before leaping out of bed and screaming at the top of her lungs. Draco stood up and walked around the bed to approach Justine. She stopped screaming immediately and cowered back away from him.

Before he could think of anything else to do, Draco raised a hand and stunned her, then lifted her onto his bed, just as the door burst open and the lights flared to almost blinding light as Harry appeared in the doorway. He threw a hand out behind him, and Draco could almost feel the magic throwing closed all the doors that were opening along the hall way and locking them.

Harry looked between Justine, lying unconscious on the bed wearing nothing but a white negligee nightgown, and Draco standing over with an expression of shock and dislike on his face in nothing but black satin pants.

"Draco, what have you done?" Harry enquired.

Before Draco could respond, the doors to the tower flew open and two girls raced into the room. For a second, Draco mistook Tanya Bussa for Ginny again, but when he realised that it was Alyson beside her, he realised that the Australian's were coming – they knew where Justine was … this was not good.

"What did you do to Justine!" Tanya walked straight up to Draco and shoved him in the chest – despite the fact that she had to reach up so high that it almost didn't work. Draco, caught by surprise, stumbled backwards and Tanya spun around to test Justine's pulse. "She's still alive," she called to Alyson.

"Was there ever any doubt that she wouldn't be?" Draco asked, sounding offended.

"Yes," Tanya replied. "Now – five minutes ago you were in the bed _with_ her! What did you do? Did you rape her?"

Draco looked absolutely disgusted, just as Harry quickly said, "_No_."

"Are you _sure_?"

"Yes!" Draco yelled. "Dammit – why am _I_ getting blamed for this?"

"Because Justine is unconscious wearing next to nothing in _your_ bed – and you're still alive. Therefore, this must be your fault," Tanya replied.

"Hey! She got into bed with _me_," Draco said.

"Wait," Alyson said suddenly, "Justine's necklace! It's glowing."

"So?" Tanya asked.

"What are the names on Justine's necklace?" Alyson demanded.

Draco looked at the side facing up on Justine's chest, just as Tanya said, "Mark and," she snapped her fingers, trying to remember the other name. Draco flipped the necklace over and Tanya glared at him, "Get away from her," she told him, just as Alyson and Draco said simultaneously,

"Kris."

"Shit," Tanya yelled, and Alyson yelled,

"Shut the door!"

Kris came strutting in, wearing nothing but his boxer shorts, carrying a shirt, probably hoping that someone would see him and swoon. He'd felt the thingy on the back of his watch warm, which meant that a spell had been used on Justine … and it hadn't been a nice spell. The moment he saw Draco, standing over a bed, on which Justine was lying –

"She's alive," Tanya told him, before he could freak out too much.

"Is this your room?" Kris asked, his voice reaching a tone that scared everyone in the room, especially Alyson, who rarely ever felt him feel this kind of anger.

"Yes-" Draco said, and before he could say anything else, Kris shot a volley of curses at him, stalking forward, and, before Draco could manage to respond, punched him in the nose.

* * *

_WOW! I love it when Kris looses his temper... Becomes a true Steelwell. Thanks for reading guys, and a big shout out to the Evil Percussionist and Queenie, both of whom Beta'd this. Love you both to death and here (hands them silver stars) I present you with an OoK (Order of Kallaix, Gabbie already has one) _

COMING SOON_ - The Quidditch final. Tanya versus Harry in the showdown to the snitch. Oh, and Draco finds out what Ronnie did. Thats TONS of fun (maniacle grin)_

**Queenie**_ - Hey Sweetie kisses Thanks for your review love, chuckles cause of another cliffie, handing Queenie lactose and gluten free candy :) _

**Dark672 -** _Uh, get over it._ _Its **my** story, i'll keep it H/Hr as long as **i** want, and your not making it come any faster with your constant bitching. One day you'll not mention it and hey presto! they'll break up. But thanks for reviewing, and please keep reading. offers candy but takes it back if he's going to be nasty about it_

**Evil Percussionist**_ -_ _(Princess runs and hides behind a palm tree cause she added stuff that didnt get beta'd before she posted it, then she glances out cautiosly) uhhhh.I love you :) holds out Candian maple sugar candy_

**Murdrax - **_(laughs) That would be so FUNNY! Thanks for readiung and reviewing dude! holds out candy bag for you to pick Thanks for reviewing - read on!_

**Ceeliegh**_ - OMG! how much am i the biggest fan of TEXAS in the world! I'd tell you why but it's a spoiler. Wait, was saying that a spoiler? (im so confused) Thankyou so much for reviewing the story, keep on reading ok? grins and holds out a twelve hour lollipop like Tegan got. (grins) JOHNNY IS SO SEXYNESS! Your a legend for reading and reviewing!_

**BladeKnight **_- Hey hun, thanks for reading and reviewing! give mixed lollies, including peachbites and those sour drop thingies you liked so much I dont think you had this chapter did you? Thanks for reading!_

**Goddark (Gabbie, AKA, the esteemed she of the OoK) - **_Hey! I know, how good is Gaia! I met you on there the other day (does the 'i met up with Gabs' dance) Read and review Hun!_

**_READ AND HIT THE SPECIAL BUTTON DOWN THERE THAT SENDS PRINCESS THE WARM FUZZIES! THIS WEEK I PROMISE... CHOCOLATE!_**


	15. The Quidditch Final

**Chapter Fifteen**: _The Quidditch Final_

_Sorry it took us so long, but HBP complicated things, thus this story is soooo AU it aint funny. Part of this chapter is an answer to a challenge which involved cheerleading, so bear with it (grins)_

Tanya woke, feeling warm and dozy, and considered the events of the night before.

_Kris had broken Draco's nose when he punched him, so Draco had been bleeding all over the place when Kris woke Justine up. Everyone looked at each other for a moment, before Justine turned unexpectedly to Harry and said, "Heal Draco."_

_Harry blinked, then walked over and placed a hand on Draco's temple, the bleeding ceased and the break healed without anything to show that it had been there. Kris muttered something very quietly about it not being fair – Ax got to leave a mark, and he didn't. His had been more impressive anyway._

_Just as everyone was glaring at Draco and looking threatening all over again about being in Justine's bed, Justine herself finally spoke up, though she kept her eyes trained somewhere near Kris's left shoe,"Um … guys … I'm relatively sure that I got into bed with him."_

_Kris gave her a shocked look and gasped. "I didn't know he was there Kris," she reassured him. "Why he was there, I really don't care right now. I just want to get some sleep, and I'm not going to get that on the boat. Clearly I'm not going to get it here either, so let's just go." She turned and walked away, leaving everyone staring after her in shock and, in Draco's case, complete incomprehension._

_Tanya, Alyson and Kris followed her quickly, and caught up with her in the lounge, where she had stopped to wait for them. Kris went over and wrapped his arms around Justine. "So, where are you gonna sleep now?"_

_Justine shrugged. "I guess I'll go back and see Sevie," she said. Just then, the doors opened and Severus swept into the tower, looking to be in high bad temper._

"_Who hurt you?" he demanded, wasting no time on pleasantries._

"_It's ok, we've dealt with that already," Justine replied, "It would seem that a group of Hogwarts students have taken over the tower. The only ones I actually saw were Harry and Draco, but I'm assuming there were more."_

"_The DC, I'd imagine," Severus said darkly and turned to go upstairs, presumably to oust the DC from the tower. Justine held up a hand to prevent him._

"_Let them stay," she told him, "It's unlikely that there will be another storm, so tonight is the only night I'm going to actually need the tower, I think. I'll just have to find somewhere else to sleep."_

"_Me too," Alyson agreed, "The unicorn in me won't let me sleep on the boat."_

"_Me three," Tanya said, but didn't give a reason._

_Severus sighed, "And you, Kristopher?"_

"_Justine was in trouble, I came to kill whoever hurt her," Kris replied. "I'll go back to the boat and sleep now, if it's all the same to you. The storm doesn't bother me, I just think of it as this massive rocking cradle, which makes me think 'dude, I'm just gonna sleep'. G'night!" He headed out of the tower without a backward glance._

"_Very well, Justine, Alyson, Tanya, you may take my bed. I was going to be up most of the night in any case, making potions," Severus told them. He was about to continue, but was interrupted by the three girls throwing themselves at him, Tanya wrapping herself around his waist, being the only point she could actually reach, Justine and Alyson taking an arm each._

"_Thank you Sevie!" they chorused happily, then bounced out of the room and downstairs to Severus's quarters. Severus followed behind them with a faint smile playing on his normally scowling face. He caught up to Kris halfway down, who looked at him and grinned._

"_Welcome to my world," he said._

"_What?" Severus asked._

"_They did just take over your bed, did they not?" Kris enquired, arching an eyebrow. "You'll get used to it. Sofa's are better than armchairs... See you in the morning," he added with a yawn._

"_I'll be watching," Severus assured him, Kris nodded absently and continued on his way. Severus continued down to his own rooms and found the three girls already getting ready to tuck themselves into his huge bed._

Tanya gave a sleepy smile. She could get used to this bed. She was seriously considering going back to sleep, when she registered that there was a noise that she didn't recognize reverberating through the room.

* * *

Tanya's voice slipped through the folds of Justine's sleep.

"Justine, are you purring?"

"Alyson! Stop purring!"

"It's not me!"

Three groggy female voices went silent and the purring continued. Justine opened her eyes in the merest slit to look down. Tanya was sleeping diagonally across the massive bed with her head resting on Justine's stomach, with Alyson curled in against her on the other side. What the hell was the weight resting on her legs?

Justine sat up quickly, displacing an indignantly squawking Tanya in the process, to see a massive ginger cat flopped across her legs purring contentedly.

"What the hell?" Justine looked down as the cat opened his green eyes and stared back at her, mewing pitifully and rubbing himself up against Tanya's cheeks.

"Oh my god! He's _so cute!_" Tanya squealed, wrapping her arms around the massive ball of ginger fluff. The cat just settled down, with the firm belief that he was in for a good scratching. He was, of course, being an incredibly cute cat, entirely correct.

Alyson was scratching and petting her way around his neck when she found the tag. "Fritz. His name is Fritz," she said, "Justine, is he your uncle's cat?"

"I don't know, I've never met him before. He is just so cute, yes he is, and yes Fritzy is…" she mollycoddled the fuzz ball as he rolled over to have his tummy rubbed

Justine again took stock of her uncle's room; the place really was a bachelor pad, with no sign that a female had ever occupied the place. The place didn't even have windows. She looked around and spotted a clock on the mantle. It read 10:30. "Guys," she said uncertainly, "The Quidditch is at twelve, right?"

"Nah," Tanya responded from somewhere behind Fritzy's fluff. "It's at eleven why?"

"It's ten thirty," Justine replied dully, in shock.

"SHIT!" All three girls cried in unison, taking off at a full run through the door, Alyson stopping long enough to pull the door shut.

Fritz stretched out on the bed. Teenage girls made good pets, those three had obviously gone under extensive scratching training from one of his kind. He began purring.

* * *

Colin Creevey was on his way down the main staircase with a group of fellow Gryffindors on his way to the Quidditch Pitchwhen a pocket rocket with bright red curls shot thought the entrance hall. "Oi! Ginny what's the rush?" He said grinning at the satin boxers covered in ducks that the girl was wearing. 

She turned and gave him an annoyed look but kept running.

Colin bit his tongue; it wasn't Ginny, rather the Australian girl, Tanya. Next came Justine. "Good Lord! It's a stampede!" Seamus next to Colin said. Justine was wearing a white night dress, and nothing much else, her hair sitting in mussed and tumbled waves around her shoulders. Last but not least, in a white singlet and blue flannel pants, Alyson jogged through.

"What's going on ladies?" Seamus called.

"Really late – Adam is so gonna kill us!" Alyson bellowed back, heading for the boat to make the fastest change of her entire life.

* * *

When Tegan was informed that Justine had gone missing again, she was not impressed. "Are you telling me I missed two adventures in one day?" she said to Kris. 

"It wasn't much of an adventure; I got to break Draco's nose though."

"YOU WHAT! I miss all the good stuff," Tegan grumbled.

The two were on their way to the front yard where Portkeys from each school were about to arrive. The Kallaix students had been put into a magical sleep for a day, so that when they left the school, it didn't matter that it was going to be midnight Australian time. To the students, when they woke at eleven was like waking for the day.

The first group to arrive from Kallaix contained James Chester, Justine's Stalker. He made it obvious that he wasn't impressed that the meet and greet team was Kris and _Tegan_.

"Where's Justine?" He inquired smoothly.

"Hiding from you," Tegan quipped back. When Justine had first started dating James, everyone had liked him, figuring that he'd just be another guy a lot like Kris, but it didn't take very long for them to realise how wrong they were. Soon the only people who hung out with him much were his old friends and Justine's closest friends who wouldn't abandon her for anything. Tegan turned and walked away, glad that Justine was over him now, and went to join Isaac Thorpe-Townsend, Daniel Coleman and Isabel. Isaac was shortish, with sandy hair and soft eyes. He looked remarkably like his brother on a smaller scale. Daniel was tall with brown hair and blue eyes. He was powerfully built from years on the football team with Kris. Isabel, Isaac's girlfriend, was a pretty blonde with soft brown eyes.

"What's up?" Tegan said as she went to join them.

* * *

Isaac, Saul'sbrotherwas sitting on Boby 2 with a look of shock on his face. He had come with the rest of the seniors of Kallaix Academy to cheer on the Quidditch team. He had just been informed when he arrived that unless Tanya turned up, he would have to be the replacement Seeker for the Kallaix team. "Let me get this straight," he said, for the fourth time in five minutes, "I have to go up against Harry Potter? Do you know who _Harry Potter_ is?" 

"Yeah, the saviour of the Wizarding world," his best friend Daniel replied. Daniel was the acting Head Boy with Kris absent, and Isaac's girlfriend Isabel was the acting Head Girl. "I don't see why you're freaking out so much, you're a great flyer," Daniel added with a grin. "Besides, if they don't turn up, I'll be on the team with you as Justine's replacement."

"That's ok though. You get to hit balls at people, I have to try and beat _Harry Potter_ to the Snitch!" Isaac informed him, getting panicked again.

"Relax little brother," Saul turned up on deck, slapping Isaac's shoulder cheerfully. "You'll do fine! Or you'll die."

"That's what you think," Isaac returned.

"By the way, that deck chair is _mine_ – see, Boby 2, I even named him," Saul added, shoving his brother playfully off the seat. Isaac glared up from the deck, and scrambled back to his feet, shoving his older brother right back.

"Break it up you two," Adam interrupted the play fight. "Saul, we can't have our replacement Seeker injured – you can fight when the game is over."

Isabel came over and wrapped her arms around Isaac's waist, "Attack of the Izzies!" Saul yelled, "They're gonna go and get all cute and kiss and stuff," he buried his head in his hands as if trying to ward off a horrible sight. Isabel let go of Isaac and stalked over to Saul, whacking him over the head, then turning around and kissing Isaac full on the lips when Saul looked up to protest.

"Eww!" Saul yelled and bolted from the deck.

Laughing, Isabel pulled Isaac onto Boby 2 again and curled up beside him. Tegan laughed, "You'll be fine," she told Isaac, "I'll go and calm your brother down – he looks like he just saw the most horrible thing in his life."

"Close enough to," Isaac grinned in response. "I'm not sure I'm all that much of a better state."

Isabel whacked him on the shoulder, "You're lucky I know you're joking, you've already lost what is it now, three girlfriends that way?"

"So?" Isaac shrugged. "I'd've broken up with them eventually anyway." Isabel just laughed.

"You two flirt way too much," Daniel told his friends.

"So how are things going as the replacement Head Boy?" Adam asked Daniel.

"Oh, alright," Daniel replied, "I wonder if this means that I'll be Head Boy next year?"

"Well put it this way," Adam said, "You and Isaac are the only candidates for the position, according to student vote, really, and who in their right mind would put Isaac in charge of a school? He's really too irresponsible."

"Oh, thanks," Isaac muttered.

"What? You are," Adam pointed out.

"Still," Isaac said.

"Do you _want_ to be Head Boy?" Adam asked.

"No, but…"

"There. Daniel will be Head Boy next year and you'll be his trusty sidekick."

"Captain of the Skateboard Club too, no doubt," Daniel said in an effort to placate his friend.

Suddenly three people streaked up onto the boat. Tanya, Justine and Alyson were racing across the deck yelling, "We know! We know!" before anyone had a chance to say anything. Kris was headed upstairs just as they raced downstairs.

"Hello ladies," he said with a grin.

"We know! We know!" they yelled, racing passed him.

"At least they know," Isaac said up on deck. Isabel laughed before heading downstairs.

Isaac and Daniel nodded as she left – cheerleading was a very important part of the Kallaix traditions. It had begun early on from a muggle influence, and swiftly became as huge as it was in American schools. Every house had its own small cheerleading team, as well as the school team. They all had a lot of fun showing off their talent whenever they got the chance, and it was made even better by the fact that their team almost always won events, mostly because they had magic, thus thier tosses and lifts were much more impressive.

Downstairs, Justine had pulled on her skirt, and had her top half on, though the zipper wasn't yet done up, and she was carefully pulling her hair into a high pony tail. Justine commented that she didn't care if she was naked as long as her hair was perfect. Everyone else called her an idiot.

Tanya had her top on, as well as her spanky pants, and she was struggling to pull up her skirt while Alyson, already dressed and her hair up, was braiding one side of her hair. Isabel went over to take over the other one. Isabel was already dressed inher cheerleading outfit, which were comprised of a short white pleated skirt and a white long sleeved midriff top with black cuffs and a black 'K' on the bottom left hand corner of the skirt and again in the middle of their chests. Each of the girls had black and white pompoms.

"Let's go,"Isabel said, "The match is gonna start any minute now. We sent the rest of the team to set up the stage."

"Right," Justine said, "Tanya, you're the Head Cheerleader, what routine are we doing?"

"We will rock you," Tanya replied grimly, smiling coldly. "And we will rock _them_." When it came to cheerleading, Tanya knew her stuff, and she was deadly serious about the whole affair, for lack of a gymnastic's team, cheerleading was her _thing._

"Yes, we will," Krystal and Isabel agreed. The four girls embraced tightly and raced off for the Quidditch pitch. The boat was empty now, everyone having already moved to the Quidditch pitch. No one saw the four girls as they slipped into the changing rooms. The rest of the cheerleading squad were waiting with the Quidditch team, all dressed and ready.

"Go out there and rock them, but then haul ass to be ready to play, your exempt from warmup, jumping around like that gets you loose enough, but we WILL be having words about today's tardiness" Adam told the cheerleaders.

"Oh, we will rock them," Tanya smirked. "Let's go guys."

* * *

The Hogwarts Quidditch team were crowded around the changing room doors, staring out onto the pitch. One of the stands had been completely cleared of people and set up like a stage. On the Kallaix stands, packed twice as full due to the other being emptied, everyone was stamping twice and then clapping. The massed sound was rapidly drowning out everything, including Lee Jordan's magnified voice as he asked what was going on. 

"They look scary," Ginny remarked, looking out. Everyone in the Kallaix stands was smiling grimly. "They know something we don't."

Suddenly a red haired blur streaked out onto the stage in a swift series of amazing flips and leaps, landing lightly and upright, staring at the Kallaix stands. Everyone there went completely _nuts_ with the cheering. Tanya beamed at them, then suddenly threw her hands out. There was dead silence in the stands.

Then Tanya stamped twice and clapped once, and the entire process started up again. With a sadistic little grin, Tanya called out in a small, sing-song voice, "We will we will _ROCK THEM!_" The last two words were magically enhanced, and reverberated through the entire stands.

Suddenly more girls, and a group of guys, came flipping and cartwheeling out to form up behind Tanya while the Kallaix stands took up the cry.

"What the hell?" Draco demanded.

"I don't like this," Harry remarked. Draco was talking to him again after last night, but was still upset that Harry wasn't telling him what was going on with Justine and the rest of the Australians, as well as Ron and Hermione and their sudden rift from Harry. Ron had gotten out of the Hospital Wing that morning, and while Harry and he were talking again, Draco knew that things were still strained between them.

The entire group started out in a high speed little dance, which paused every few minutes for another stamp, stamp, clap. Everyone was just staring at the group in shock, but the Kallaix stands were all being interactive and following the lead of the cheerleaders.

After about five minutes, Alyson and Tanya moved to the back of the group and the boys started tossing them up in the air with amazing grace. Krystal, Isabel and Justine were leading the dance, while Jacque and Tegan were with the guys, aiding in the tossing.

_I'm sexy, I'm cute! I'm popular to boot!  
I'm bitchin', great hair! The boys all love to stare!  
I'm wanted, I'm hot! I'm everything you're not!  
I'm pretty, I'm cool! I dominate this school! _

Who am I? Just guess! Guys wanna touch my chest!  
I'm rockin'! I smile! And many think I'm vile.  
I'm flyin', I jump! You can look but don't you hump! Whoo!  
I'm major, I roar! I swear I'm not a whore!

We cheer and we lead! We act like we're on speed!  
Don't hate us cause we're beautiful well we don't like you either!  
We're cheerleaders! We are cheerleaders!

_  
Let's, go, Kallaix! We are the Knights! The mighty mighty Knights!  
We're so terrific! WE MUST BE KNIGHTS!_

The Kallaix stands, having cheered and screamed and geerally lost it for the majority of the cheer, started the stamp, stamp clap again, while the cheerleaders started up a very complicated dance and flip routine. Tanya and Alyson were being thrown around like incredibly graceful rag dolls.

"Why don't we have something like that?" Malcolm Braddock asked, "Look at their skirts!" Ginny slapped him and he turned away rubbing his cheek and scowling at her. "What was that for?"

"If you're too stupid to figure it out, I'm sure not gonna tell you," Ginny replied.

"Wow – look how high they're throwing those girls? Is that magic or something?" one of the Chasers asked.

"Apart from safety charms and that sort of thing, no, there isn't," Harry replied.

Just then, Tanya and Alyson were thrown up really high and they half twisted so that they were falling down with their backs to the ground, stretching out to catch hold of each others hands and sinking slowly back to the ground.

"I take that back," Harry muttered. "There is now. But there wasn't before."

When Tanya and Alyson landed, Tanya and Justine headed off stage and back into the changing room. The rest of the team stayed and started up another cheer, while the two girls went to presumably change into their Quidditch uniforms.

In the changing room, Greg was waiting for them. Justine gave a shriek of delight and threw herself at him to hug him. "I've been asked to commentate the match as the guest Minister of Magic who represents thecurrent highest scoringteam - you rock," Greg grinned at them. "I've been warned to not be _too_ biased … but I'm sure they'll understand if I … _slip_, a couple of times. Now, I have only one thing to say to you, and that thing is this: You'd better bloody win. Waddy and me are out there watching, and we expect top performance. Nothing else will do. Adam – I want to see _third gear_ action."

Adam saluted. "Third gear. Yes sir!"

"Good. Justine, your mother is also present – I believe she'll be sitting with your uncle. You might like to catch up with her after the match, I know she's missed you," Suddenly Greg pulled Justine into a hug. "You do your best, Princess," he smiled at her. "Remember – third gear and you're gonna win! Kris, take no prisioners!"

"Yes Sir!" they chorused as he saw himself out of the changing room. Severus strode into the changing room just as Greg left, and looked around them.

"Let me guess – he gave you one of those 'there is no chance that you can lose this match' speeches?" they nodded. "Well, he was wrong. The Hogwarts side is fierce and good – just as good as you are. This match will show who is the better side, not your prior performances. Don't be foolish enough to think that you can sit back and allow this game to set the pace, the Hogwarts side will come out no holds barred and throw everything they have at you. If you are not ready, you will be decimated."

Adam smiled dangerously, "We're ready for this Severus. We know what we have to do, and we know how to get there._ We've_ been holding back a little so far – the Hogwarts team has no idea some of the moves we can pull. That is not idle bragging. You've never seen one of our finals in Australia. We know what we're doing."

"I have complete confidence in your ability … but I also know theirs. All I wish to convey to you right now – although your Australian arrogance is charming, it has no place on this field today. I have warned you, now go out there and do your best – I hope it will be enough." On that sombre note, he turned and left the changing rooms, leaving behind a somewhat more serious team.

"We are the best team that Kallaix Academy has ever seen, and Kallaix _is_ the best, making us, excuse the cliché, the best of the best. You know the signals, watch for them, we're gonna pull _everything _out of our asses this time. Tanya, keep your eyes open – keep Harry Potter's eyes on you, if he tries anything, you know what to do!"

"Oh yeah baby," Tanya grinned.

"Justine, Jeffery, you've got your assignments. Hold _nothing _back."

"We're on it, boss! That keeper is gonna regret the day he was born."

"Kris, Saul – I'm going straight for the Quaffle. We're doing the Whirlwind straight off – Severus said that the Hogwarts side will come straight out, that means we have to beat them to the mark. Let's go out there and show Hogwarts what Australians can really do!"

The team cheered, grabbed their brooms and headed out onto the pitch. The Hogwarts team was already there, as was Madam Hooch, the referee. "And we have the Australian team, led by Adam Blake, captain and Chaser, followed by fellow Chasers Saul Thorpe-Townsend," Greg didn't even stumble over the long name, "And Kristopher Crompton. Justine Snape and Jeffery Campbell, the Beaters, followed by Jacque Quaine, the Keeper, and Tanya Bussa, Seeker."

The Kallaix stands went nuts again. In the middle of the stands, a group of guys had taken off their shirts, and each had a letter painted on his chest, spelling out "Go Knights". The whole team was laughing, but Kris and Justine stopped laughing when they realised that James was the "H", and he was watching Justine with a cool smile. The whole atmosphere was familiar to the Australians, the same sort of thing that they would expect at a football match.

Suddenly Greg's voice came echoing out from the place where he was standing to commentate the match. "I am your commentator for today, Gregory Crompton, Australian Minister for Magic. I don't like to think I'm like those other Ministers of Magic, look at them up there in their poncy clothes, in their poncy box with their poncy accents and their poncy languages – _GO THE AUSSIES! AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE!_"

The Australian crowd now spread back out over two stands, rose to its feet as one and shrieked back with one voice, "_OI OI OI!_"

"With that small show of national support, please do not allow me to hold up the game for any longer," Greg called out cheerfully. "I'll do my best to be as non-biased as possible about this game but … no promises!"

Down on the pitch, the two teams were gathered in the centre circle. In the front row of the Kallaix crowd, a posh-looking woman was waving a small triangular flag with a heavily embroidered "J" on it, and was calling out in a voice that seemed to cut through the noise of the rest of the crowd, "Go Jeffery! Go Jeffery!" in a posh heavily accented voice. She had obviously been born and bred in Britain.

"I'm Geoffrey with a G, I'm Geoffrey with a G," Jeffery was muttering down on the pitch. Justine, Saul and Tanya exchanged looks, then all three of them turned and waved:

"Hi Jeffery's mum!" they all screamed.

"Ooh! You're in _so_ much trouble. I'm not even sure if I'm talking to you right now," Jeffery told them, and his mother waved her little flag with increased vigour. Before they could say anything else, Madam Hooch called for the Captains to shake hands.

Harry and Adam strode forward and shook hands firmly. There was no enmity between them. "May the better side win," Adam said.

"We will," Draco assured him from the lines, eyes hard.

"Mount your brooms," Madam Hooch said, "On my whistle – three, two, one!" She released the Quaffle and Adam shot straight up and grabbed it, Kris and Saul whirling around him at a deadly speed. Justine flew, to everyone's surprise, straight at Draco, who froze up, and didn't react as Jeffery went for one of the Bludgers, batting it straight at the Chasers for Hogwarts, making them pause as well, and giving the Kallaix group a swift head start.

The Quaffle and players were changing places so constantly that it was impossible for Ron to figure out where the ball was, and who was holding it, so the Australians easily scored the first goal of the game.

"Go the Knights! Whirlwind!" Greg roared into the microphone, "Ten – zero to Kallaix!"

Down below, Harry flew past Draco, who was just recovering as Justine hurtled up to join Jeffery with the Bludgers, defending her team but not attacking – it wasn't time yet. "Draco! You let her use your emotions against you! You need to think like a _MALFOY_" Harry hissed at his brother, "Get over it already, we have a match to play here!"

Draco shook his head slightly and nodded, racing off after a Bludger and hitting it as hard as he could in Justine's direction to try and get some revenge for humiliating him like that. Justine just smirked at him and swung her bat, sending the Bludger at Polly Wood, the Hogwarts Chaser with the Quaffle, making her drop it. Kris seized it and scored again, only just managing to get past Ron, who was in top form, taking the score up to twenty-zero.

Greg was following the game easily, screaming out of the score and yelling support and abuse indiscriminately whenever a player fouled up. A few minutes into the match, Polly had the Quaffle again, and managed to score, giving the Hogwarts team their first goal. When she went to grab the Quaffle the next time, Kris was there, and he grabbed the Quaffle, shoving Polly out of the way and heading up toward the other end of the pitch.

Almost simultaneously, Madam Hooch blew her whistle, Justine, above Kris, gave him a disappointed look, and Greg glared at him heavily, as if to say, _'Kris! You butthead! I didn't raise you to go picking on girls!'_

Kris reluctantly handing the Quaffle back to Polly for a penalty shot, though he did give her an honesty apology.

"Twenty-twenty!" Polly had scored again.

The game continued, and every now and then, one of the Kallaix players would give a hand-signal. Justine often raised her fingers and clicked them, at which point, Jeffery would swat a Bludger in her direction, and she would hit it off at another player. They used the whirlwind twice more in the first half hour of the match, and Ron still hadn't managed to block it, though he had come close the last time– it was a good move.

Suddenly, Adam gave a hand-signal that was something like a rolling wave, or sort of like a hula. The Chasers and Beaters both went zigzagging down toward _their_ goals, rather than the Hogwarts ones, which surprised everyone. Up above, Tanya turned her broom and shot straight down, a look of triumph on her face. Harry followed her, both heading at a breakneck pace toward the ground. The Hogwarts Chasers came after them, since Adam had the Quaffle. One of the Bludgers raced at them, hit by Malcolm Braddock, and, to the surprise of the crowd, Justine caught it sideways, holding it, with some difficulty, against her chest. Jeffery and she had been hitting the other Bludger between them, and now he caught the other Bludger. Both focusing on thier Flying hard.

At an unseen signal, both Justine and Jeffery swirled away from the main group and released the Bludgers, straight into the faces of the oncoming Hogwarts Chasers, who scattered. Below them, Tanya broke out of her feint and streaked back up into the sky. The Australian Chasers went up and over the heads of their opponents in a movement rather like that of a cresting wave, tossing the Quaffle into the air. Tanya caught it on her way passed and flew towards Ron Weasley, dropping the Quaffle into Adam's waiting hands. The Quaffle left his hands and soared gracefully through one of the goal hoops while Ron tried to figure out what was going on. _Wasn't it illegal for the Seeker to touch the Quaffle?_

Kris, who was flying behind the hoops caught it and threw it to Saul who passed it back to Adam at breakneck speed.

They managed to score another three times before anyone could really figure out what was going on, while Greg screamed something about a "Tidal Wave" – they could only assume that this was another of the moves that the Australian's used.

Adam thrust his fist in the air, showing two figures, while Kris screamed, "We're moving on to _second gear_ people!"

Justine grinned gleefully from her position high above the game. She was in position for a move she and Jeffery liked to use, where you shot the bludger straight up and down rather that across ways so that it became increasingly difficult for the opposing beaters to time their swing perfectly to steal the bludgers or defend their teams.

She smacked the bludger down towards Dean, who managed to swerve out of the way and gracefully come up in front of the goals, and before Justine knew it, Hogwarts had scored again, bringing the score, according to a joyful Geggly to eighty – thirty.

Justine saw Adam suddenly throw a fist into the air, and moved to dive on her broom, seeing that he was in possession of the Quaffle. The whole Australian team converged for a split second in the air, and all flew off in different directions yet again, but in that moment Adam had managed to say, "Beaters split, Kris you're on it!"

Justine swerved off to defend Kris in any capacity she could, while Jeffery worked on Ron and Harry, Adam having had explained before the game, they were key elements to the Hogwarts side, Justine had to admit, Ron had pulled some phenomenal blocks this match. The asshole. They had also decided that since they didn't want Ron to die, Jeffery would be the one who had to keep him occupied, while Justine defended and got the Quaffle away from the opposing team.

* * *

In the Kallaix stands, Julia, Justine's mother sat beside Severus Snape and watched her daughter with pride, and to some extent, a degree of smugness. "She really is something out on the Quidditch pitch, is she not?" Severus remarked to Julia with a smile. 

"She certainly is," Julia agreed. "Vicious … just as her father was, when there was something he cared about at stake. She really is … very like him."

Severus nodded sadly. "She has his temper," he remarked, "Which she has displayed several times since she arrived here."

"Well, no one's died, so it can't be too bad," Julia remarked.

"A couple of people _nearly_ have … but I will tell you about that later this evening. I would be honoured if you would accompany to the ball tonight, should you find that acceptable."

"Of course," Julia smiled somewhat alarmed but the former comment. "I would like to hear of her escapades since she arrived here … Mr. Malfoy hasn't presented any more problems, has he?"

"As always, your intuition is as quick as your looks are stunning," Severus replied. "This is not the time to discuss such matters. He has been involved with her loss of control."

Up in the air above them, Kris scored a goal, and the stands around them erupted with enthusiastic noise, thus ending the conversation momentarily. Severus clapped lightly, but Julia went as ballistic as the rest of the Kallaix supporters, screaming herself hoarse, clapping and stamping enthusiastically.

Suddenly an arm snaked around her shoulders and a young man flopped down in the seat beside her, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek. It was Mark Hall, Severus registered, Tegan's older brother, and he was stripped to the waist with a big 'K' painted on his chest – Severus assumed that he was one of the group that had made up the words 'Go Knights', and realised that it must now say 'Go Nights'. Well, he supposed it still got the message across.

"Hey Aunty Julia," Mark said.

"Mark," Julia nodded her greeting. "How are you?"

"Oh, fine, fine," Mark said, waving a hand slightly. Around them, all the female populace seemed to have turned their attention away from the game and where twisting around to try and get a look at Mark. Severus recalled that the boy had starred in several famous movies, and was considered by most to be a heartthrob. He also recalled the press thought Justine and him were together, which was, of course, completely ludicrous.

"The team's doing well," Mark remarked, turning his attention back to the game and lounging in his seat.

Just as he said that, Tanya and Harry, circling high above the game, both dove for the ground as a Bludger shot passed them, directed from Draco Malfoy's bat and clearly aimed at Tanya. It missed by a wide margin and Justine went streaking after it to hit it into the thick of the Hogwarts Chasers, effectively scattering them.

Over by the Hogwarts goals, Jeffery seemed to be trying to kill Ron, sending Bludger after Bludger at the Keeper whenever he got the chance, and forcing Ron to roll out of the way or flying away from the goals. Unfortunately for the Kallaix Chasers, Draco and Malcolm were generally using the other Bludger to try and scatter the Kallaix Chasers, or at least distract them. It was working, to an extent, and Kallaix was only forty points in the lead at present.

In the Centre of the pitch, Adam held up his hand, three fingers showing, and Kris yelled, "We're moving on to _third gear, _people!"

"Third gear is extensively known throughout the Australian competitors of Kallaix Academy," Greg advised the crowd. "It's when the Knights pour everything they have into the game, moving faster and player harder than ever before. It's a mark of great esteem for an opposing team to survive long enough to bring the Knights into third gear action, but also a mark of suicide. More than once players have had to be escorted, unconscious, from the field while the Kallaixians are playing in third gear. KRIS SCORES!" he added at a bellow of delight, as Kallaix pulled their lead to fifty points.

On the game went, with the Hogwarts side struggling to defend themselves agaisnt the bludger onslaught, and the Kallaix side not getting the chance to score all too often because Ron was being protected as well as was possible. Half an hour later, the Kallaix cheers when they scored a goal were considerably hoarser, and the Hogwarts side was likewise. Kallaix was pulling further into the lead, now several goals ahead.

In the next five minutes, Ginny and Polly managed to get the ball up to the other goals without being scattered by Justine's Bludgers, and Ginny put the ball past Jacque with some difficulty, bringing the score to one hundred and ten to sixty.

To the horror of the Hogwarts team, Adam paused and held up his hand, this time showing four fingers. What the hell was going on? There was a _fourth _gear? Trying to cope with the third had been hard enough. While they swung into defensive positions, they didn't realise that they were doing exactly what the Kallaix team wanted them to do.

Upon seeing the Hogwarts side move into defensive positions, the Kallaix team grouped together as well. Up above, Tanya circled unconcernedly, and Harry remained nearby, marking her. When the Hogwarts Chasers and Beaters realised that the other side wasn't about to try and attack them, they moved into attack positions themselves.

Adam discretely held up one finger, parallel to his broom pointing forward, the Kallaix team shifted, all getting ready to fly, then Adam dropped the finger and they all shot forward, breaking away from the close huddle and charging one on one for the Hogwarts players, who froze, not sure how to deal with this.

Suddenly the Hogwarts team realised that each of the Kallaix students were going straight for a head on. The Hogwarts team broke and tried to fly away, but the Kallaix team chased after them, almost as if they were herding them towards Jacque's goals, then, just as Madam Hooch was about to try and call both teams up, since flying with the intent to collide was against the rules, the Kallaix team pulled out and shot straight for the Hogwarts goals, the Quaffle with them.

As the Chasers shot forwards, Justine and Jeffery turned in mid air and went for the Bludgers, sending them straight into the faces of the oncoming Hogwarts players to cover the backs of Kris, Saul and Adam, who put the Quaffle past Ron

"And that was a particularly effective use of the move known as the Fourth Gear," Greg yelled out cheerfully, while the Hogwarts team was just staring at the lead the Kallaix team had managed to get. "This move is only ever used once the game has escalated in third gear action. While the opposing team races to defensive positions, the Knights are known to execute the move before the opposition has realised exactly what's going on. For the benefit of the referee, it's not actually against the rules, because although flying with the intent to collide is against the rules, the team never intended to actually hit the opposing team's players."

The Kallaix supporters were laughing and cheering and stomping their feet and generally being rather raucous.

The Hogwarts side, however, was starting to lose hope of winning the match, but the Chasers were determined to do their job. Working together, Dean, Ginny and Polly attempted an unpractised version of the Whirlwind. Jacque just looked at them, at them and burst out laughing, burying her head in her hands as her whole body shook and threatened to send her plunging from her broom down to the ground.

"JACQUE!" Kris screamed, "_They're actually gonna try and score you dimwit!"_

Jacque looked up, "Huh?" she asked, and lunged sideways as she saw a flash of red out of the corner of her eye, but the Quaffle was already through the hoops. Jacque muttered some obscenity under her breath, and hurled it over to Kris, who scowled at her before flying toward the Hogwarts goal.

But he never got there. Justine flew for one Bludger, found the other and immediately realised that it was in the perfect position to do some damage. She swung her bat, connected hard with one Bludger and sending it flying straight for the other. When they collided, provided they didn't break, both would spin off and hopeful do some damage to one of the Hogwarts players.

In the second before impact, Tanya looked up and gave a shriek of anger, and Justine watched in mounting horror as the tiny golden Snitch dodged up between the colliding balls. Before it flew out of the other side, there was a nasty crack, as the Bludgers collided, and Harry, who'd been chasing the Snitch neck on neck with Tanya, held out his hands, catching the fragmented remains of the golden Snitch as it fell.

"_I DIDN'T DO IT!_" Justine yelled, as Tanya howled, "JUSTINE! You are so dead!"

Madam Hooch blew her whistle to signal the end of the game.

"Justine Snape has managed to break the Golden Snitch," Greg remarked, sounding rather disappointed, "Well, I suppose that means that you've broken _every single Quidditch implement yet invented_, I hope you're happy. And Hogwarts wins, two twenty to one thirty."

In the Kallaix stands, the crowd was still going utterly ballistic, and the Hogwarts people were just staring at them, almost forgetting to cheer themselves. The Kallaix team flew together, exchanging high fives and grinning happily and then descending to the ground, congratulating one another on a great game.

The Hogwarts team landed as well, watching their opponents in growing confusion – hadn't they just _lost_? Kallaix landed opposite their changing rooms, and Hogwarts followed suit.

Kris and Saul swooped in on either side of Justine, and somehow managed to hoist her onto their shoulders, as Tanya landed, looking murderous. Justine grinned impishly down at her, safe upon the shoulders of the two guys, because Tanya could never reach her up there.

Tanya shook her fist at Justine, muttering inarticulately. Ax and Alyson led the charge from the Kallaix stands down onto the pitch, screaming themselves hoarse to try and show their support, but they didn't come beyond the base of the stands, because they knew the end game ceremonies.

"You rock!" Ax screamed, using his magic to make himself heard over the noise of the cheering.

Tanya looked up, and the anger drained from her face, as she thrust a hand into the air and screamed, "OH YEAH!" So used to taking her queues the Kallaix supporters somehow managed to increase their noise, as the cheerleaders threw themselves into a new routine. Stamp, stamp, clap – the crowd started up again.

The two Quidditch teams organised themselves, each forming a rough line and moving toward the other end of the pitch, so that they would pass by somewhere near the middle.

Justine found herself second last, just before Kris. "You rocked," Kris assured her.

"I lost the game, Kris," Justine pointed out.

"But you played well," Kris shrugged. "That's worth everything in my eyes."

Justine just shrugged. She'd let the team down, and she knew it. Nothing Kris could say would ease her guilt for that.

The two teams met, and each player shook hands with everyone on the opposite team as they made their way toward their own changing rooms. Draco was about third in line, and when he came to Justine, both of them paused, then hesitantly reached out and shook hands quickly. Draco was surprised to see that there was no hatred in Justine's eyes, she just looked sadly at him, before moving on.

Kris shook hands with Draco cheerfully, and there seemed to be none of his former enmity, which confused Draco even more than Justine. Then he was out of the Kallaix students and heading for the changing rooms.

Ron was only two people after Draco, and when he came to Justine, she almost refused to shake his hands, but he caught her hand and shook it anyway, looking at her earnestly. "I never meant to hurt you," he told her, staring at her almost as if he thought he could make her understand by the sheer force of his gaze. Justine just sneered at him, dropped his hand and moved on.

Kris, next in line, narrowed his eyes, and grabbed Ron's hand. "You mightn't have meant to hurt her, but this is completely intentional," he said with a grin, then swung back his arm and punched Ron straight in the nose. Ron reeled backwards and fell over, and Kris kicked him in the ribs.

Daniel and Isaac, standing in the front of the Kallaix crowd along with Mark, both screamed simultaneously, "_FIGHT!_" and charged forward, along with most of the guys, and a few of the girls.

* * *

"A very well played game," Julia was remarking to Severus as they made their way slowly down to the pitch, letting the children run ahead of them. Jean Wadsworth was accompanying them. 

"That's one of the best games I've seen them play," she agreed. "A pity about that broken Snitch, we could have won, otherwise."

Suddenly one of the footballers pushed passed, "Sorry Mrs. Wadsworth!" he yelled over shoulder, "It's a brawl, gotta hurry!"

"Oh shit, what's Kris done now?" Jean demanded.

"I'll tell you after the brawl," Mark yelled, dashing off after the footballer. Severus took after him.

"Not if I can help it!" he yelled at Mark's back.

Suddenly McGonagall stopped him, "We need to get all of the officials out of here right now, and the guests, escort your friends to the food tents for refreshments," she yelled at Severus, herding him, along with a group of reports, out of the stands, while Jean protested that she could help stopping the boys.

At the other end of the pitch, Jean spotted her friend Greg Crompton come flying down the stairs, and managed to side-step McGonagall and rush across the pitch. Like almost every Australian male, Greg was fanatical when it came to sport, and the moment he saw his son starting a brawl, she knew his first reaction would be to try and join in, so she had to stop him.

Making her way around the outskirts of the brawl, because she knew better than to try and stop it on her own now that all of the footballers and a whole lot of the Hogwarts students had joined the ever-growing brawl. Suddenly one of the Hogwarts boys, a big, chunky lad with an unintelligent look, swung out of the brawl and blinked around him stupidly, then lumbered towards her, raising a threatening fist.

She was just about to go for her wand to stun him, when Daniel and Saul lunged out of the brawl, "Touch our principal and we'll kill you!" Saul yelled, as Daniel coat-hangered the lumbering fellow back into the brawl.

Saul pretended to tip a hat to Jean, then turned and hurried back into the brawl himself. Jean didn't have time to yell at either of her boys, because Greg was coming frighteningly close to the brawl now, grinning like a maniac, screaming, "_BRING BACK THE BIFF!_" at the top of his lungs.

Just before he dove headfirst into the brawl, Jean placed herself in front of him. "Crumpett, stop this immediately," she told him.

"Out of the way Waddy!" Greg said cheerfully, "My son's in there and I gotta go and show my support!"

"Crumpett, do you know how much paperwork you'd have to go through if you hurt one of these people?" Jean demanded.

For a moment, Greg looked painfully between Wadsworth and the fight. "Paperwork?" he asked, sounding very aggrieved.

"Miles and miles of it," Jean assured him.

"But …"

"Miles and miles," she repeated, and Greg shrugged amiably enough, then screamed out,

"_Am I ever gonna see the biff again?_

_Bring back, bring back the biff!"_

Apparently, while he may not be able to fight himself, he could show his support as much as he could. Jean shrugged and stayed beside him, in case she needed to remind him about the paperwork again.

* * *

Julia slipped into the refreshment tent, now without both Severus and Greg, to try and track down a warm drink. She was sure that Severus would be trying to stop the brawl and keep everyone safe, and equally sure that Greg would be trying to get into the fight – she hoped that Jean Wadsworth would be able to stop him – she didn't think she had to worry however. She'd seen the Kallaix Principal slip away from the group, and had purposefully stayed silent. 

Having come over from an Australian autumn day, at about thirty plus degrees, Aussie autumn days were still rather warm, she was finding the cool breeze refreshing. And she was glad that she had been given the opportunity to wear one of her favourite outfits, which was always plus in her eyes, the snappy form-fitting black suit comprised of fitted black pants and a coat with defined line that clearly enhanced her figure. This time of the year she usually couldn't wear it.

Her blue eyes were highlighted by the perfect amount of professionally applied makeup and her stylish chocolate brown hair, a colour which her daughter had charmed her own hair to match for several years now, was pushed back off her face. She grinned at the woman behind the bar and ordered a butterbeer, looking around quickly to see if Jean had managed to pry Greg away from the fight yet, or if Severus might have appeared, escorting some other dignitary to the cool safety of the food tents.

Julia grinned a sly little grin and held back a fit of laughter - trust Kris to encourage an all-out brawl at the Quidditch final. She was willing to bet that even if they'd won the match, Kris would have still managed to get a brawl started – just for the sake of it. All of the officials and dignitaries had been ushered into this section of the grounds and told to enjoy the situation while the teachers broke up the fighting.

Julia accepted her drink and wandered towards the side of the tent that was open, looking out over the lake. She twiddled the handle of the dainty mug in her manicured hand and grinned out over the water.

"It's beautiful, isn't it? Did you attend school here?" came a musical voice from somewhere to Julia's left. She turned and found herself looking into clear silver eyes, and a beautiful pale face. The woman was obviously British, although Julia hoped that she wouldn't be too supercilious about her upbringing – the snobby British look had been out of fashion for some years now, which Julia was grateful for. She'd hated having to dress up in British styled clothes for news reports, just because that was all the craze.

"No, I attended Kallaix Academy, in Australia," Julia responded politely, sounding out the waters.

The woman smiled, "I hear it's a very exclusive school. I'm Narcissa, Narcissa Lupin."

Julia took the woman's hand and responded, "Call me Julia, did you go to school here? Perhaps you can help me, I'm here with the Australian press, the Australian Wizarding Network, and I'm looking for a stunning sunset shot, would you have any clues as to the best place to get the shot?" Julia paused and blushed, "You have to forgive me, I flit into work mode rather frequently, as my daughter delights in reminding me. She's usually right."

Narcissa smiled. This middle-aged woman was certainly an interesting one, for all that they'd only just met, she was obviously very well bred, and well mannered as well, which could be a hard find among the upper-class, as Narcissa well knew. "I always thought the best view was at lake level, looking out over the hills to that side of the castle. I'll show you, if you like?"

Julia laughed. "Well, I'd be grateful to accept your invitation, but first I really must ask my daughter's opinion as well, she has a wonderful eye for this sort of thing, and she'd never forgive me if I didn't ask her opinion of something," Julia said without conceit for her daughter, "She was on the team today, and played very well. I'm rather hoping I get to catch up with her before the Ball."

Narcissa turned and smiled happily, glad to find some common ground, "My son was on the Hogwarts team! What a co-incidence – you might be able to clear something up for my husband and I. We noticed that the Kallaix students seemed to be celebrating, despite the fact that they'd just lost, and we were wondering why that would be?"

Julia smiled, "I suppose it might seem odd to you. Australians support sport more than almost anything, and even in the event of losing, while we are disappointed, we celebrate a game well played."

"Ah, I see," Narcissa smiled, it made sense, really. If a team plays well, of course you support them for it – I'm afraid in Britain we seem to have a less supportive attitude when our side loses … anyway, I've seen some of the Kallaix team, tell me, are you Jacqueline's mother?"

Julia turned to Narcissa to face her fully front on for the first time. Narcissa knew the other woman's face immediately; the soft elegant lines, the shape of the mouth, the colour of the hair, except for the eyes, which were blue, not green, but Narcissa had seen the girl the other day and she clearly had Calis Snape'seyes. She gasped and took a step back in disgust, "You're Justine's mother, aren't you?"

Julia was confused, this woman, who only a minute ago had been so polite and beautiful now looked as though some unwanted smell was wafting under her nose, "Yes, Justine is mine…" Good lord, what had Justine been getting up to, to offend this woman so badly?

Narcissa suddenly opened her beautiful mouth and said in a low venomous tone, "You spawned that bitch, that piece of filth? She broke my son's heart the cheating little whore…"

Julia felt her temper flash boil in a second, she didn't know for a fact that Justine hadn't dated this woman's son at some stage but she thought that Justine would have mentioned if she'd gotten together with one of the Hogwarts boys and dumped them in the last week or so… "My daughter wouldn't even touch your son, no matter how great you think he is! You stand there as though your son is something special, when if he is _anything like_ his mother, he is obviously ill bred _trash_."

Julia turned to walk away, round the outside of the tent, with Narcissa following, trying in vain to ignore the woman – she didn't want to do something she'd be ashamed of later, and she knew that if she kept looking at Narcissa, she'd do just that. However, when Narcissa spoke, she forgot this resolution completely, "Draco is the heir to the Malfoy line, the most prestigious family in all of Britain…"

"Draco Malfoy! That little bastard _destroyed_ my daughter, then had the audacity to abuse her, if I ever meet the little bastard I'll rip him apart with my bare hands, do you hear me?" Julia turned, blue eyes flashing icy sparks.

Narcissa's silver eyes thinned to cold steel slits. "Your daughter, bitch that she must be if she's anything like you, deserves everything she got, I hope she never finds peace for this, do you hear me, _never._"

Julia lost it, like her daughter, she lost it well. "You horrible _cow_, how _dare_ you even think about Justine like that, you _disgust_ me!"

A few of the party goers looked at the women, both of whom turned away from the party walking completely out of sight around the side of the tent and continued. No one, however, followed them – there was already one brawl going on, they didn't want to help start a second.

Narcissa smirked, whispering, "Your little slut deserves it, every word."

Julia plastered on what she called her toothpaste smile. "Just like you deserve this!" Julia reached out and slapped the other woman across the face as hard as she could. Narcissa looked shocked and her eyes welled with tears, great red welts forming on her pale cheek. She was obviously unused to being in any pain at all.

Narcissa gathered her wits quickly, however, and screamed as she lashed out at Julia, who slapped and shoved right back, furious, both with herself for letting herself start this, and at Narcissa, who was convinced that her child was perfect, when Julia knew perfectly well that this was not the case. She couldn't stop screaming that her daughter was definitely the superior of the two children, while Narcissa shrieked that her son was the better of the pair.

They went at each other for a good few moments, just outside of the tents and out of the way of the 'resting' dignitaries before they were found quite by accident, Remus just wanted to bring his wife a drink, and Severus rounded the tent, not wanting to enter, just locate Julia from the outsides and beckon her to join him in his quarters for a drink – it was far too noisy out here.

Both men approached from opposite sides of the situation, paused for a moment when they saw the cat fight, and then grabbed their respective woman. Severus caught Julia by the waist from behind, struggling to hold her back as she continued snarling insults, and Remus dragged Narcissa away by the arm, while she, too, was yelling that Justine was a little slut who didn't deserve to lick Draco's boots – at this, Severus almost let go of Julia to go at Narcissa himself. "Your son is _far_ from the angel you think him to be, Narcissa," he sneered at her, and Narcissa paused for a moment – she'd always valued Severus's opinion, and she knew that she could always count on him. It was Severus who had always been on her side, and it was due only to him that she had never been forced into a Death Eaters robes.

"I'm so going to kill you, then your son!" Julia managed to scream coherently before Severus silenced both women with a flick of his wand, swept her off her feet and carried her away princess-style, for all that she was twisting in his arms like a cat, trying to get free.

A pale-faced Remus turned to his wife, looking between her and the hell cat being carried away in Severus' arms. "I don't know what the hell is going on here ladies, but is this really appropriate behaviour? Narcissa, this is my old friend I was going to introduce you to – I mentioned her before we came here…"

"You neglected to mention that she'd broken my son's _heart_," Narcissa spat.

Severus sneered at Remus, "Really, do catch up. Narcissa and Julia were bound to meet, and _discuss_ their children."

Remus turned to Narcissa then to Julia, "The history between Justine and Draco can't be that serious, it happened two years ago for giddies sake! You two don't have to live out your children's feud – you're very alike and I'm sure you'd get on just fine if you could see past your children."

"Ah but the dynasty continues, Remus, find Draco, if my sources are correct all of this is about to hit the fan … I'd… " and with that, Severus marched Julia away.

* * *

The moment that Kris had punched Ron, Harry had run for Ginny and pulled her from the bedlam, and Dean had grabbed Polly, knowing that Oliver would freak out if his little sister was left in the fight. Ginny struggled to try and free herself of Harry's restricting arms. Ron was in there, and the last she'd seen, he'd been bleeding. She couldn't even see him any more, because a whole heap of the Kallaix students had joined the fray, which had in turn had encouraged the Hogwarts people to get down and dirty on the Quidditch pitch. 

"When Adam said that the Kallaix students would die for each other, I guess he wasn't kidding," Harry remarked.

Ginny looked at him, "Please don't say that," she said, "Don't even bring up the idea that someone could die out there. You might jinx them! How could Kris do this?"

"No one messes with Kris's girl and gets away with it. He might come across as easy-going, but if you mess with someone he loves, there's no telling what he might do."

As the fight continued Ginny watched in horror as Jacque, usually the cool one of the Australian girls calmly walked over and while the boys held Ron up, apparently he'd managed to find his feet at some stage, she punched Ron in the stomach. Hard. Ginny lost sight of her brother again, and started frantically scanning the crowd for the familiar shock of red hair.

"Can you see Ron?" Ginny asked anxiously, turning to Harry.

"They're pretty much targeting the fight around him, damn Kris; he said he would let this go, he _promised_ Justine he would – I thought I could trust that, at least." Harry seemed to be looking for Ron to, and Ginny breathed a sigh of relief. Harry would make this better, he always did.

"I know he's angry, but right in front of Justine, and Draco," She paused and her face went dead blank, "Harry, tell me Draco is not in there – if he's in there ..."

"You're worried about my safety? How sweet, Weasley, but don't trouble your pretty head – I'm right here," a voice came from right behind them, "And dammit Potter you're going to answer my questions or it's the end. I _know _this has something to do with me and her, now what the fuck is it!"

Harry looked at Ginny, who just nodded her head and gestured to the fight. His glance seemed to become more complex for a moment then he whispered in a small voice. "Draco why don't you go and ask Justine what's going on? She could explain far better than I could. I promised her I wouldn't tell you about this, but I never promised that I wouldn't send you to her to find out for yourself."

Ginny suddenly smiled slyly, "You know, that's not even necessary. You might have promised that you wouldn't tell Draco. You want to know what's going on? I never promised Justine I wouldn't tell you about this, so I'm the only that you can come to for answers, so you'd bloody well better treat me with respect, or I'm not telling you anything, you hear me?"

Harry looked at Ginny for a moment, she looked determined, and frankly, he agreed with her. Draco deserved to know what had happened, no matter how much the truth might hurt him, finding out that he'd been wrong all this time, but it was better than the lies that had destroyed his ability to love anyone for fear of unfaithfulness. "Go for your life Ginny – he deserves to know. I'm going to go and try to get Ron out of there … if you're sure you can handle this on your own."

Ginny became more determined. "I can." Harry smiled at her, then turned and pushed his way into the brawl, searching out the Hogwarts students and calming them down, one by one, trying to end this with as little violence as possible – they'd already had enough of this. If anyone had been watching, they would have been amazed at Harry's ability to bring everyone back in check.

As he pushed his way further into the brawling crowd, trying to avoid being hit himself, Harry saw, at the very centre of the melee, Adam, just standing there and tapping his wand against his ear, looking around as if he was bored with the goings on. In his hand, he was holding his wand, which was glowing with a funky red colour. Harry realised that no one in the crowd was even trying to use their wands, and he realised suddenly that he wasn't trying to use any magic himself – somehow, unconsciously, he'd sensed that magic would not be useful in this situation, and everyone else seemed to have picked up on it as well.

When Harry reached for his Magai powers, he found them easily, but when he tried to draw on them, to cast a spell over the crowd to try and calm everyone down, he saw Adam's wand glow all the brighter before diminishing, and his magic failed him. "Dammit – they might have saved half of these people from being cursed, but they made it twice as hard for anyone to try and stop this! Unless that was the point, of course.

* * *

Draco followed Harry with his eyes for a moment, hurt that Harry would hold his word to Justine over his own need to know … but then, that was a Gryffindor for you, never break your word. He turned back to Ginny. "Alright Ginny – what's going on?" 

Ginny was watching Harry's path as well, and didn't even turn to him to answer. "What do you want to know?" She asked calmly, "I'm warning you now, Draco, if you lose your temper at me, I'm walking away from you straight away, because I won't put up with your supercilious attitude, and I _am the only one_ who can help you with this. I don't like doing something that I _know_ will endanger my friendship with the Kallaix students, which I value highly, but you need to know … even so, if you piss me off, I'm gone."

Draco looked at her for a moment, as if trying to decide what he need to know the most, just in case he lost it and drove her away. "How am I involved in all of this?"

Ginny thought hard as to how to answer this question without making him flip his lid. "Two years ago, someone pulled a stupid prank, which wasn't meant to go anywhere but ruined the lives of two blameless people … one of which was you."

Draco's eyes narrowed, "And the other?"

"You aren't that thick, work it out on your own," Ginny told him.

"Her," Draco said, knowing his words for truth, even as he spoke.

Ginny spun around and faced him head on. "Dammit, Malfoy she has a name. Use it or I'm gone!"

"Fine! Are you bloody talking about … Justine?"

"Yes."

There was a pause and the Draco's voice cut through like a bullet. "And?"

"Ask the questions, and I'll answer them, Malfoy," Ginny told him.

Draco thought for another couple of moments then said carefully, "You said a _prank_, I don't remember any _pranks_ ruining my life, or Justine's for that matter – she cheated on me and ruined my life, but she seems happy enough!"

"It's a matter of perspective, Malfoy – you choose to have the perspective that she's happy, but have you seen her truly smile, truly laugh, once in your presence this entire Conference? Is she smug and gloating about breaking your heart? I don't think so, Malfoy, because she was as much a victim of this as you were … more so, you might even say."

"Then what do you mean, prank?" Draco demanded, starting to get frustrated.

Ginny's eyes filled with tears, and she turned away from him, "The Pensieve …"

Draco paused for a moment, then looked at her, "How do you know about that?" he demanded, then changed his mind, "Pensieve's don't lie, Ginny," and to her, he sounded like a drowning man hanging onto the only thing he could as he watched his world fall apart before his eyes.

"What is it about you and the unequivocal need for proof? Dammit Draco, why else do you think Padma was in the Hospital wing? Justine used her Magai powers to look through her memories, and found some things that neither of you would have expected!" Draco's head shot up, and he smiled, just as Ginny's eyes widened – she realised she'd said too much, given something away, given Draco the link he needed to find out it had been Ron, which was something she'd been trying to avoid – as much as she disliked her brother at present, she didn't want Draco to kill him. "Draco – you need to let this go. You know the truth now – Justine never cheated on you, she _loved_ you. The only cheating that went on was when the _both_ of you were cheated of love."

Draco's eyes flashed, and to him the entire world went red. He didn't consciously remember doing anything, but suddenly he found himself with Ginny backed up against the stands, her eyes filled with fear as he raised a hand that was glittering with Magai power. "Ginny," he said, his voice soft and dangerous, "You will tell me the rest of this. You will tell me who did this to me, or do I have to break into Padma's mind to find out what I need to know? I don't want to have to do that, Ginny … but if you make me, I will, and it won't be pleasant for her."

Ginny stared up at him in absolute terror – not even Justine had been this scary when her powers had been out of control. Justine had never threatened her, but Draco looked ready to kill, and she knew that she couldn't just walk away from him now. "Draco – calm down. You can't let your powers get out of control, you _can't_. There's already one Magai running around here with no control, we don't need another one. Don't hurt Padma – she had nothing to do with this, for all that she knew what had happened. It was … Ron. He was jealous that Justine dumped him for you, and he wanted to drive her away from you, back to him, because he thought she loved him, when anyone could have seen that it was only affection, not love …"

His hands stopped glowing and he stepped back from her. She relaxed, because she knew that he was back in control of his power again. "Draco … that's all there is to know, I promise you. But I want a promise from you in return to telling you all of this, when no one else could have – don't hurt my brother. He didn't mean for all of this to happen, and he's been punished enough as it is."

"The other morning, it was Justine attacking Ron in the Room of Requirement, then when she saw me in the hall…"

"She was completely out of control, and seeing you didn't help. She almost killed Ron then – he doesn't need that to happen two days in a row. Please, just promise me that you won't hurt him, he's paid the price for what he did, let it lie now."

Draco felt like he was broken in two, half of him felt like destroying the world, ripping it apart, the other wanted to find Justine and apologise for ever doubting her love, somehow manage to convince her to come back to him, to love him as she once had, and let him love her in return. "Let me get this straight – your brother made a memory in a Pensieve to try and get Justine to love him again. That backfired and both mine and Justine's hearts were broken. She went back to Australia. She knows what's going on, and it's making her lose control."

"That's about it," Ginny agreed, "Now Draco – _promise me_!"

He looked at her for a moment, then smiled a charming little smile and shook his head, turning away. "I'm sorry Ginny."

She knew immediately what he meant. "Draco! I won't let you hurt my brother – I'll go to the Minister of Magic himself and ask him to intervene if you try anything!"

A hand came out of nowhere and clamped on Draco's shoulder. Remus Lupin looked at Ginny over his adopted son's shoulder, "I'm sure you'll find that unnecessary," he then turned to Draco, "My office – _now_."

* * *

Justine stared back at Harry, "She what?" 

"Ginny's told Draco everything, Justine," Harry told her gently. "She never promised she wouldn't tell him, and although I promised I wouldn't tell him, I wasn't going to stand in her way. He deserves to know, just as much as you did Justine – your love wasn't the only one that was ruined."

Harry had come to find Justine in the Hospital Wing, where the Kallaix brawlers were all sitting around seeing to one another's injuries and joking about the brawl, assuring Madam Pomfrey, who was hovering over them as if afraid they'd hurt each other more, that they did this "all the time". Justine had not been injured in the brawl, having had the sense to get out of there pretty quickly the moment that she saw Kris punch Ron, but had come to the Hospital Wing to keep her friends company.

The Hospital Wing had been divided into two sections and was curtained off so that none of the brawlers could see one another. On the other side of the curtain, the Hogwarts injured where being treated by some of their schoolmates, and Madam Pomfrey was ducking between the sections every couple of minutes, just to make sure nothing was going wrong. _Shit_, Justine thought. If Draco knew what had happened, then he was going to come and find Ron … Or maybe he'd just thank Ron for getting rid of her …

Justine stood up and, ignoring Harry's hand on her arm, slipping through the curtains and into the Hogwarts section of the Wing, where most of the people just gave her a look and then turned away again – they didn't seem to realise that the brawl had been partially her fault. She went straight to Ron's side, noting that his broken nose had since been fixed, and he was just sitting around waiting for Seamus and Dean to be healed.

"What?" he demanded, seeing her coming towards him, immediately going on the defensive.

"Don't get me wrong," Justine said, looking at him calmly, "I'm not over this yet. I'm still hurt by what you did, and I don't think I'm going to stop being hurt for a long time … but I'm not angry at you. You don't have to fear me anymore. Fear him – he knows now, but I didn't tell him. Stay in sight of teachers and students you trust for the next few days."

He looked at her for a moment, then nodded slowly, and smiled at her. She didn't smile back, but she gave a parting nod in his direction before she turned and walked away with as much dignity as she could, then the minute she was around the corner, ran like there were demons at her heels.

Kris watched her go and exchanged a knowing look with Daniel, whose split lip he was currently mending. "I need you to watch her, stick to her like glue this afternoon okay? She might need your help."

"Draco's going to be looking for her," Harry piped up, "He's just found out the truth, after all, and he's going to want to talk to her … I don't think she can handle that right now."

"That's it, we're all getting on the boat for the afternoon. Waddy's gonna be after my blood anyway, so I should give her a couple of hours to simmer down. Resulting explosions won't be quite so bad. Go find Justine, Daniel, and get her to the boat, be ready to take off, and I'll get these people down there as soon as I can."

Daniel nodded. "Yeah sure, I'll get her to the boat … and I'll try and avoid talking about all this. I don't know what's going on, but I guess this is some old wound, huh? I remember when she came back from England after that one year exchange that she did … she left here to carefree and happy, but she came back so …"

"Bitter? Cynical about love?" Kris offered, 'Yeah … she can deal with it on her own, but we have to show her that we're here for her. Do what you can about not saying anything about what's just happened, she needs a break from it all. Keep her alone, and keep her calm."

Daniel grinned, "We're on it boss!"

When Daniel and a couple of the other guys had left, Kris turned to Harry. "Do you want to come to the boat with us?" He asked.

Harry smiled slightly and shook his head, "Draco's going to need support just as much as Justine does. I'd better go to him."

Kris just nodded, and Harry left the Hospital Wing.

* * *

Narcissa sat quietly behind her husband's desk, gazing at her son, while he carefully avoided looking anywhere near her. Her husband and Harry were quietly discussing what had gone on. Her graceful hands were weight against the ice-pack that was draped over one of her hands, and all her other cuts and bruises had been Healed, but her face was completely devoid of colour. 

Her son, who she had thought she'd raised to be polite and well mannered, had caused this girl so much pain, and now it had come out that it had been nothing to do with either of them. All the things that Draco had done … now that she saw them in the cold light of truth, Narcissa was having trouble believing that her son could have ever done that, though when she had thought his heart had been broken , she had approved of his actions completely, as a mother will.

Draco glanced up at his mother – he hated to know that he had caused her pain, when she had already been so much. As he sat there, he remembered Mark Hall's comment from the Unicorn Hunt, "_Woman basher_". He, Draco, had claimed that he had loved Justine beyond life itself … Oh god, he could barely imagine how she must have felt when he had attacked her like he had – she had been swearing that she loved him, that she would always love him, even after he had hit her, insulted her, driven her to a point beyond which he could expect no forgiveness.

What sort of monster had he been back then? What sort of monster was he still? _Like father like son_, Draco thought, although he hated the idea that he was anything like this father. For two years now he had struggled against his father's image, and he had honestly thought that he had nothing of his father left in him … and now he found out he had been wrong.

Harry finished recounting the events up until the Quidditch match, "And that's everything," he finished. "Or as near enough to everything that I can remember."

Remus's face was pale, though it was hard to tell if it was in fury or in sympathy. "Draco – you need to calm down. None of this was your fault, as far as I can tell, you acted as you thought best at the time … you could not have known the truth back then, and your behaviour could only be expected. You should not blame yourself for what happened then."

Draco looked up at the man that was more a father to him than Lucius had ever been. "But I do," he said. "She told me she loved me. I should have believed her," he buried his face in his hands. "I don't know what to do any more."

Remus put a hand on Draco's shoulder. "We can't tell you what your path is, you have to find that on your own … but you should always know that we will always be there to walk it with you. You are our family, and we love you. We'll do what we can to help you on your way, but only you can take the necessary steps to the conclusions you need to reach."

Draco looked up at his mother, who stood and came to pull him into her arms. "I love you Draco," she whispered in his ear.

It seemed in that one moment, perfectly clear to Draco exactly what he needed to do. He let go of his mother and looked Harry straight in the eye. "Does Justine love me?"

Harry paused for a moment, then smiled faintly, "I shouldn't have to answer that question, Draco. True love never dies, as I'm sure you know from experience. What do you think?"

Draco smiled back, then turned to the door, but Remus stepped into his path, predicting his actions, "Draco, you may do more harm than good if you go to her now."

Draco's eyes flashed, "I need to see her."

Harry walked over to join Remus. "Draco – you won't get near her. She's being guarded by the footballers, I saw Kris send some of them to follow her around. Bodyguards, he called them. In any case, I'm sure they've gotten on the cruiser already, and you'll never catch up with them out on the lake. Justine is angry enough with everything at the moment – she's just found out what really happened, and she doesn't deal well with negative emotion, it sends her Magai powers completely out of control."

Remus turned to Harry in surprise, drawing in a swift, sharp breath, "Someone might have mentioned that she was a Magai," he remarked. "This changes everything … Draco, just let her calm down. Once she's back in control, then you can approach her, but she needs space right now, I think. She has no defence right now, and she won't want to be confronted with you."

Draco's face went stony, "Are you really going to stop me?" he asked, "If you aren't going to ground me or something, let me go. You told me I had to do this on my own terms – this is them. Please get out of my way." He pushed past Remus and Harry, and out of the room. Neither of them tried to stop him.

Harry turned to Remus. "He'll never get to her, I _know_ she's on the boat – I saw it take off just before. Obviously Kris assumes that if he's on the lake, his Headmistress can't skin him alive – she's a pretty ferocious woman, for all that she's short. The McEwan dragon is on watch, and the Wentworth is expected for the party tonight, because of the increased number of Kallaix students here."

"Then we need to get to Ronald, because that will be his next call," came the unexpected voice of Narcissa. "I know my son better than anyone else, and if he can't find Justine, then his temper might drive him to attack the one who he sees as the source of his problems, just for the joy of getting his own back."

* * *

The boat circled the lake lazily. Most people had wandered downstairs for refreshments and a rest, but Saul had a small group of students up on the deck, around the deck chairs, and was holding a fake sword in his hand, complaining that he'd tried to steal Ax's, but it hadn't worked, so they had to make do with plastic. 

Kneeling before him was Isaac, "I, Isaac Thorpe-Townsend do solemnly swear my allegiance to the Boby Brigade. That I shall give it the homage that it deserves and forsake it for no other deck chair, for as long as I live. This is my solemn vow."

"Arise, Sir Izzy of the Boby Brigade!" Saul pronounced grandly, and pointed to one of the deck chairs, which Isaac went to lounge on while Daniel got knighted.

Kris walked up just as Daniel was half way through his vows.

"What. The. _Hell_?" Kris demanded. "You've managed to convince fifth and sixth years to join in this crazy religion?"

"Religion!" Saul yelled triumphantly, "Let's make a Boby Religion, dedicated to the worship of Deck Chairs everywhere! I never thought of that – thanks Kris!"

Kris hit himself in the forehead and turned to walk away. "If you want food," he remarked, "It's downstairs, and I hereby forbid you to remove those deck chairs from their rightful positions on the _deck_."

"Just because you don't have the ability to remain in a practiced religion doesn't mean you can take it out on everyone else!" Saul yelled at Kris's retreating back. Kris didn't look back, and soon enough, the Boby Brigade were hungry enough to abandon the items of their worship and head downstairs for food.

Once they were downstairs, Kris called Daniel and the Izzies over to him. "Izzy, you're in on the plan right?"

"Which plan?"

"Daniel didn't tell you about the plan?"

"Oh, protect Justine, yeah, got it," Isaac nodded.

"I need you four to keep an eye on her. I don't think that James had realised that they're _over_, so try and keep him away from her as much as possible, OK? And if Draco Malfoy – the blond Beater from the Quidditch match – goes near her, try to head him off, alright? She doesn't need to deal with him right now OK?"

"We're on it, boss!" the four sixth years saluted, then went to merge back into the crowd and go about their duties.

Daniel was Kris's protégé, and everyone acknowledged him as being second in command when Kris was away, particularly if Ax and Saul weren't around. The two boys from Kris's year were Kris's best friends, but Daniel was being prepared to take over the school the next year when they had left.

* * *

Justine had not been particularly interested in hanging out with her friends from Kallaix. Everything was just all over the place, and she needed to be alone to try and get some of it sorted out. She'd decided that the best thing would be to get ready for the ball tonight, because she could still think of other things while she was doing that. 

Now she realised that she had left her shoes in the library earlier, which was where all of the students were gathered at the moment, setting up a bedroom for themselves – the Library, like most of the Kallaix transporting systems, had charms so that it would expand to fit however many people there were within.

When Justine slipped in the doors, about ten different people came over to say hi, and she managed a pretty smile and some non-committal statements for all of them, saying she was on her way to a nap so she could party that night.

She knew she had left her shoes on the edge of the fiction shelf, she just had to figure out where it had gone too. She slipped through the dozens of camp beds set out on the floor, and sighed when she spotted the shelf where they'd left her shoes. He face fell when she realised that the shoes weren't there – someone had moved them. She started to wander around the room, looking for the white shoebox, or Kris, who would probably know what had happened to it. Suddenly she felt like ice was crawling up her spine and she gave an involuntary shiver.

"My Dear Cinderella, you seem to be missing your glass slipper."

Justine turned to see James – her own private stalker, standing with one of her silver stilettos in his outstretched hand. "James, I didn't know you were here, thank you for finding my shoes. May I please have them? I _really_ need to finish preparing for the Ball tonight, and I need the shoes."

James smiled and came to stand in front of her. He was taller than she was, about Kris's height of six foot two. "I thought maybe we could finish the fairy tale. I'm supposed to get on one bended knee and place the slipper on your foot. Then we become the couple that everyone desires and envies." James grinned slow and sensually, moving around behind Justine "You got my letter and are dying to make up with me, are you not?"

Justine's mouth fell open in shock. "James, I rather gathered you would understand from my lack of reply just how disinterested I am."

James laughed and backed Justine into a corner, "You're just ignoring me to make me feel guilty. It worked darling, now shall we make up? I know you love me, and you know I love you, so there's no need for us to get into a fight over some trivial detail."

Justine ducked under his arm as he came in to kiss her, " Trivial detail? Since when are my feelings _trivial? _I'm not interested in you James, we were a couple for all of a week before I got over you. I do not want to be with you, we are not making up – we are _through, _do you understand me? Over, our relationship has ended, and you just have to deal. I'm not going to kiss you again, and now can you give me my bloody shoes?"

James eyes were rock hard as he handed the shoes over. Justine wondered why he gave in so readily until she noticed Daniel coming across the room to stand next to her, eying James with particular dislike.

"Ready to go?" he said to her, and then frogmarched her and the shoes away from James.

* * *

"So we have to go up to the school and do a sound check?" Alyson asked, patting her hair, which she had arranged so that it was twisted up in curling rollers, getting ready for the ball several hours earlier, as most girls tended to do. 

"We walk in the back door, have a play on our instruments so Saul can mix them and level the sound, then we walk out again." Ax said, putting an arm around her shoulders. "We don't have to see any Hogwarts students, and don't have to talk to anyone. But we do need to make sure that everything is in order for tonight."

"And it gives us a chance to listen to some playback and check how far off my pitch is!" Justine giggled, though her laugh sounded more than a little strained, as if she was trying to persuade everyone that she was in control and being her usual self. It wasn't fooling Ax, or any of her other close friends, however.

"Not to mention the teensy little factor of, you know… picking the songs - we do have to decide what we're going to perform tonight, you know. It won't work if we just turn up and say 'Well, we haven't decided anything yet, so we're like ... just gonna wing it.'" Kris shrugged and helped Justine down the ladder onto the wharf. The group contained Ax, Tanya, Justine, Kris, Saul, Alyson and Tegan, who all loved to play music together, and worked really well as a group.

All of the girls were at some stage of readiness for the evening, be it the hair or the makeup. One of the most drastic changes was Justine's, who had removed all of the charms that she used to create brown hair the shade of her mother's, and it was now its natural shimmery black. "Your hair is going to look so damn good with your dress…" Kris said as Daniel came bounding down the ladder and threw an arm around Justine's shoulders.

"That was the general idea of removing the charms," Justine said as they wandered up the lawns towards the back of the castle. They were to be let in the back door of the Great Hall, and soon found out that all of the Hall bar this corner where the stage was to be raised off was curtained off from view, and Kris discovered through trial and error that touching the violet curtain resulted in a mild electric shock.

"Damn hippies trying to fry me… I'll get them good…" _ZAP_!

"Kris give up, you're going to static your hair and I'll never get it to sit straight tonight," Alyson admonished him. She'd officially taken over as Kris's stylist, which was usually Justine's job, but Justine had taken Tanya under her wing for the Ball, saying that she needed help more than Kris did.

Justine and Ax were sitting at the piano with Daniel fetching a chair for Tegan, who was checking that her double bass was still in tune.

Tegan reached up to her hair to pat it for the thousandth time. "Tegan! Stop touching your hair, the potion needs to set properly and won't do that if you're fiddling with it all the time!" Justine scolded.

"But it's doing something seriously funky to my hair, my scalp is tingling and it feels really weird," Tegan complained, "What did you say it was going to do to my hair?"

"I didn't," Justine said cheekily as she went to test one of the mikes, "And don't touch it."

Tegan put down her hand and tried to concentrate on tuning her instrument. She drew her bow across the strings again, and then she fiddled with a peg turning it slightly. She played a quick tune to test it and was satisfied with the results, so she just sat and twiddled absently while everyone else tried out their own instruments.

"Guys, quiet," Ax yelled suddenly. Everyone stopped talking and turned to Ax, "Please tell me you guys hear this," he said as he hit a key on his keyboard.

"Sounds fine to me," Kris said.

"No, it's not fine. Listen again," He hit the key again.

"Ax there is nothing wrong with the note," Tegan said rolling her eyes.

"No, no, no it's not the note, it's the key. It clicks when I hit it." Ax said, clearly getting stressed, "I have a clanky keyboard. I cannot work under these conditions," there was a rather distraught expression on his face. Saul snorted loudly.

Justine went over and gave Ax a hug, "Aw, it's ok baby, we'll make sure that your clanky keyboard is fixed before tonight."

Tegan just laughed silently as she put her double bass aside and picked up the bass guitar and prepared to tune it. She had just finished when Saul yelled out, "Ok guys, let's get started." Everyone stopped and looked attentively towards Saul's direction.

"Let's get started with a couple of songs so I can balance it all," he said.

Tegan turned to Ax, as he was the unofficial 'head' of the music group, and when he began to play the soulful introduction to a love song, Tegan recognised the tune, which was usually played on the guitar, Tegan moved to her double bass, picking up the bow and following along with the tune. Kris sat to one side and strummed to the slow poignant tune, and Alyson waited for the chorus, and then joined in too.

Justine began to sing in the chorus, her soprano picking out the depth of Ax's voice. The two smiled at one another as Tanya rolled out her drum kit mat, gave it a moment to materialise then sat and joined in, giving the song rhythm as Justine sang the second verse. Daniel and Saul were busily working on the intensity for the amplification charm they were going to cast on the hall for that night, and had linked the spell to a level box to mix the perfect sound.

"Ax, can we take it from the start of Justine's verse again?" Saul called, "I'm just going to give you some fold back, don't let it put you off, Justine, that's the perfect key for you and Ax."

Justine fell back into the second verse as Ax led the group effortlessly back to the beginning of the verse without even pausing. They sang through to the end of the song and all broke out in applause and accolades for one another at the end.

"Well, I want to do some punk tonight as the opener, but Ax reckons we should do one of Justine's songs, cause she's going to lead us in the final song, where we're gonna mess with people's heads, so what we really need is some paper scissors rock."

Ax stood up and grinned, "I accept your challenge, on one condition. If I win not only do I get to pick the opener, but I also get to go and catch some sleep while you stay and work with Saul on perfecting the sound and tuning the electric for me to use tonight."

"I accept the challenge, ready?" Both boys held out a fist, and shook them three times, Ax left with paper and Kris with Rock. "Dammit, you always pick scissors!"

Ax grinned, "And I figured now was a good time to change tactics!" he turned and picked up his electric guitar and handed it to Kris. "Be nice to my baby."

Kris laughed and began to strum the guitar to check the strings weren't out of key, easy in his defeat because he knew that Ax loved to perform enough that he would never make Kris do something really stupid or anything like that.

Tegan had made her way to the far side of the room with Alyson and they were both putting rosin on their bows. Daniel, Saul and now Ax were making sure all of the electrical instruments were all charmed to playback on Saul's system and then ran through a charmed amplification relay.

Justine was standing next to the mike stand, playing with the edge of her shirt, distracted from what was going on around her. She was, she thought, caught up in the surrealism of the day. What a poetic way of putting it.

She was however, drawn out of her musings when she head Ax saying to Saul, "…open with My Immortal."

She spun around and met with Ax's steel grey gaze. "I can _not_ perform that song here. You know what that song means to me, I used to sing it back when it first…"

Kris piped up from the other side of the room, "Justine, not only do you sound rocking when you sing that song, but I think you _need_ to sing that song now that he knows."

Justine just nodded and went back to her shirt; it seemed more real than her life did right now.

Something pink floated through the door. Kris saw it from where he was just finishing tuning the guitar. They were all just about ready to go by the looks of it, which was good – Ax was far from the only one who wanted sleep before the ball. Alyson and Tegan had placed their instruments in the sound cage to one side of the stage, and Daniel was carrying in the deflated drum kit mat and Kris' guitar in.

It floated high around the room, and Daniel paused looking up and exchanged a confused look with Kris. Kris wasn't worried till he saw the look on Ax's face and the way he kept glancing anxiously at Justine, who hadn't noticed it at all. Alyson and Tegan both visibly paled in shock. Saul and Tanya looked just as confused as Kris.

As it floated closer to the ground, Kris saw that it was a flower, a lotus by the looks of it, and it wasn't just pink, it was also moving through red and white, in psychedelic patterns and shades. He remembered what the flower meant suddenly; just as it landed at Justine's feet.

She stared down at it without expression, her face showing no emotion, and Kris slowly began to walk towards her. Her voice was so soft when she spoke that he almost missed her heartbreaking question, "Is this someone's idea of a sick joke?"

Ax stood and came over as well, and said very firmly and quietly, "Justine, everyone that you've told about that flower is in this room, except Adam and Jeffery who wouldn't do it - it must have come from someone Draco told …" he put an arm around her shoulders, "Don't worry Justine, I will find out who sent it and kill them," he put an arm around Justine's shoulders.

Tegan shocked everyone by pointing out, "Well, that's the hardest origami I've ever seen, and the only person I know of that can do it is Draco, has anyone considered he may have sent it? I mean, I know he's a dick, but no one does origami like he does."

Justine lost it. She turned into Kris' chest and began sobbing as though her world was ending. "Dammit! I left all of this pain behind when I came back to Australia. Why the hell did I come back here? Why didn't I just stay in the life that makes sense, where I'm in control?"

Ax placed a hand on the small of Justine's back for a few minutes, when it became clear that she had no intention of stopping crying, he said, very quietly, "Justine, if you keep crying your eyes will be puffy tonight," which got the immediate response of Justine giving him a wobbly smile and a kick in the shin.

"Insensitive butthead," she sniffed.

"Daniel, can you and Saul take Justine and the rest of the girls back to the boat and stay with them? Kris and I need to get something straight before we return, so stay at the docks for a second – don't let the cruiser take off, ok?" Ax had the scary look back in his eye as he turned and incinerated the flower and flounced out of the room gracefully with Kris following behind him.

Daniel came and gave Justine a hug. "Come on, if you make me make you smile, I will resort to tickling you, I'm not kidding!" Justine laughed and let him lead her sniffling and chuckling uncontrollably from the room. "C'mon, Winky can get some choc-chip ice-cream from the kitchen, so let's get chip-faced!"

Justine had to laugh at that one. Tegan trailed interestedly at the thought of ice cream, and Alyson cast one last look into the room, before grabbing Tanya and heading out after them.

* * *

Draco stood staring at the floor where his flower had been incinerated a few minutes earlier. Summoning his powers, he waved a hand in front of his face to see the spells cast in the room when the flower had been burned. Justine had been crying, that was like a punch in the stomach. Ax had burned the flower, then… Tanya, it seemed, had cast an unseen cheering charm on Justine to try and lift her sadness. It had worked to some extent, though Justine didn't seem able to stop crying, then soon after they had left. 

Draco shook his head. Plan A had failed it seemed, trying to get her to come to him. That meant it was time for Plan B. 'If Muhammad won't come to the mountain, bring the mountain to Muhammad,' he murmured softly.

Draco walked out of the stage area just as the Egyptians turned up in what looked like the clothes some ancient Pharaoh's harem might have worn.

The lead girl looked at him then smiled, "We are going to dance tonight, we came here to rehearse, are you finished with the stage?"

Draco mustered a smile of sorts and said, "Yeah, go ahead…" before heading down the corridor and out of the castle towards the wharf. He was about to step onto the Kallaix side when a small bundle of bronze dragon flesh hurtled at his head, and a miniature roar escaped from its tiny jaws, flecks of fire flashing in front his eyes, though they didn't actually singe him.

"What the fuck!" he said batting his arms wildly and dodging around as it tried to set his hair on fire, or scratch his eyes out or something. When he realised his tactics weren't working, he had to resort to casting a stunner at the dragon and it was somewhat more successful then he had hoped for as the little dragon fell unmoving onto the wharf.

"Shit," he said, checking it for a pulse, the stunner was only supposed to force it away from him, though he should have realised that because it was so much smaller than the average dragon that he supposed he should have realised it wouldn't take as much force to knock it out.

Satisfied that the dragon was still alive, he straightened up, but before he could leave, he heard the sound of flapping wings again, and another roar, deeper this time, and stronger. The black miniature dragon was set with wings flared to swoop him, roaring as it spotted Rhiannon lying prone on the wharf. Draco had no other choice but to stun it as well. Bad move. The dragons just kept getting bigger. A large blue serpentine dragon lifted out of the water next to the boat, obviously pissed off by the steam rising from it.

"This just keeps getting better," Draco remarked, not sure what he was going to do about this normal sized dragon attacking him – one stunner would obviously not work for it.

From behind him a firm voice commanded, "McEwan, it's okay don't harm him, I will deal with this," Draco turned to face Kristopher Crompton.

Alexander Kidson walked out from behind Kris and drew his sword, causing Draco to go on the alert, but with a malicious smile, Ax just levitated the two small dragons and took them down the wharf onto the cabin cruiser and out of the way.

Kris looked Draco over icily, "Well, the only thing I can think of to ask you right now is, _what the hell do you think you're doing, trying to get on our boat?_ I suppose it's pretty obvious really – you want to hurt Justine even more than you have already! Let me tell you right now Draco – you will get on that boat over my dead body."

Draco narrowed his eyes at the implication that he would try to hurt Justine now that he actually _knew_ what had gone on. "I just want to talk to her."

"Fine! You tell me what you want to tell her, and I'll go and pass on the message because you're not going anywhere _near_ her."

Draco clenched his fists and said in a low and dangerous tone, "I want to see Justine _now._"

Kris shook his head with a cold smile, and walked slowly and deliberately toward Draco. "Now we get to the point – you, you, you. You never understood, Draco, that I am her best friend. I would die for her, and I would kill for her. We aren't romantically involved – we bypassed that, and went on to something that was _much_ more. I'm telling you right now, Draco, plain, clear and to your face, that if you don't walk off this wharf _**right now**_ and stay the hell away from my best friend, I will choke the breath from your body with my bare hands and enjoy every moment of it."

Draco saw the complete conviction on the face of the Australian and said in what he hoped was a neutral tone, "Kristopher, while I can respect your need to protect her, I don't want to hurt her, just … talk. I _need_ to talk to her, now I know what happened."

Kris stopped right in front of Draco and shook his head again. "Do you know that when Justine found out what happened in the past, the first thing she did was make sure that everyone _else_ was ok? She went around to everyone else who had been hurt that night, and sort out their problems. She had the proof that she had been in the right all along – she could have gone marching up to you and presented you with proof that you could not deny that she had _never_ cheated on you, never betrayed the love she felt for you, but she didn't. A lot of the others didn't understand why she didn't use this power, but I think that I understood how she felt from point go. A book I read once claimed that 'love is the one substance that never fails'. You claimed that you loved her, but you failed her in the instinctual way. You had no faith in her when she tried to tell you her side of the story. She tried to tell you that she had never made love to me, and she was telling the truth. She didn't come to find you, because she could _not_ deal with seeing you again – even to get her own back."

Kris stepped around Draco and faced him from the other side. "Do you want to know the most ironic part in all this? Tanya told you the other night that Justine still loves you, and she wasn't lying. But that does not mean that she ever wants to see you again. You have utterly destroyed her. These past two years, she has spent, not living in some happy wonderland, but trying to on existing in a world that she could no longer understand. She has been struggling to learn to control and use the powers that you unlocked in her when you _attacked_ her over something that never happened. You are the lowest form of life on the face of this planet – even worms and snails are above you in intelligence and sensitivity. So I ask you to turn around, walk away and leave her alone. Your little prank with that flower has done enough damage for one day."

Draco looked Kris straight in the eye. "She knew it was from me?" he asked, letting the prank comment fall for the moment.

Kris gave a little lop sided grin, "There was some debate," he admitted, "But we're sure now."

Draco glanced at the boat behind him and stiffened. Kris glanced in the direction of Draco's gaze, noting that a crowd of students were all clustered around the tiny dragons, trying to revive them. Tegan was standing by the railings, glaring death at Draco, and when she saw that he was looking at her; she started screaming blue bloody murder. However, what really caught the attention of both boys was the single figure standing on the top deck, gazing out over the lake, seemingly oblivious to all that was going on around her.

Kris forced Draco to look at him. "It's only a matter of time before Tegan's screaming manages to get through to her. If she sees you … I will tell her that you did send the flower, but what goes on from there is up to her. My offer still stands, however. Should you wish me to pass on a message, I will, though it goes against what my heart tells me."

Draco hesitated for a second. "Tell her this: our clearing at midnight," he said quickly, before Kris could walk onto the boat and the opportunity to get a message to Justine was lost forever. Kris nodded, and Draco had to walk away.

* * *

"Severus, apart from it being entirely unnecessary, being bound to this chair is becoming an encumbrance," Julia Snape informed her brother-in-law, in no uncertain terms. They were both sitting in his dungeon office, although Julia's ankles were bound to the legs of the chair, and there was a strap around her waist, keeping her firmly in one place. They had been sitting here for over two hours now, and although Severus had provided refreshments, she would have rather been anywhere else at that moment. 

"Well, if you had retained the lessons from your youth and were capable of behaving like the lady you were born to be, we wouldn't be having this issue now would we?" Severus asked, sounding half-teasing, half exasperated with the childishness of Julia's actions several hours before.

"Severus, that woman was being completely irrational!" Julia cried, "Who, with any sense, tells an Australian woman that her children are anything less than perfect? Did you hear the things she said about my daughter? I was reacting as any mother would have."

Julia glared up at Severus who was smirking, "And how precisely under your rules of engagement, do you justify Narcissa, was she also not just defending her child?"

Julia pouted, a cute pout entirely like her daughters, "Yes, but in _her _case, her child is a dick and nowhere _near_ perfection."

Severus sighed and looked straight at Julia, "I've explained the situation to you it is Mr. Weasley who was at fault, not Draco."

"_Mr. Weasley_ was a heartbroken teenage boy who pulled a prank without thought for the consequences, and while his thoughtlessness is regrettable, he was not so much at fault. _Mr. Malfoy_ physically abused my daughter. He hurt her so severely that she is still unable to be sad or angry without becoming unstable, losing control of her powers and slipping into either rage or depression. She has never recovered from what he did to her, and to this day she has never been as happy as she was before she knew him. Therefore, I must say that Mr. Malfoy is far more at fault than Mr. Weasley is."

Severus knew that he was not going to get through to Julia now. Her reasoning made some amount of sense, yes, but Draco had been reacting as any heart-broken teenage boy who had never been denied anything he wanted might have. With a sigh, he rose from his own chair and walked into his living quarters to get her some of the event memorabilia that he collected over the past week, and Julia looked up to see Narcissa walk into the room just as Severus left it.

"You dirty rotten traitor!" Julia screamed after him, "Don't you dare leave me in here alone with her when I can't even get up and give her what she deserves!"

Narcissa sat in the chair that Severus had just vacated and said in a small voice, "Can we please talk?"

Since she couldn't get up and walk out, Julia didn't see that she had much choice but to stay, even though she had no wish to talk to Narcissa. "No, we cannot. But since I can't get up, you can talk, and I'll listen."

Narcissa looked at her hands, which were folded delicately in her lap, and started speaking quickly but softly. She told Julia about the husband she had once thought she loved, and how the desire for power had warped his mind. She admitted that she had joined him, until she realised how power had corrupted him. She told of Draco's childhood, and what his father had groomed him to become. Then she spoke of the darkness that her husband had awakened in Draco, and how her son overcame the darkness, fighting it with love of his new family … and finally she spoke of how much Draco had loved Justine.

" I know that all of this does not excuse my son's actions, but I hope that you'll realise that it's my way of trying to explain why my son has reacted in the way he did. I have only just learnt the truth about what happened – Draco and Harry explained it to me. I am so sorry I said those things about your daughter. I now realise that I was in the wrong, and you were right all along."

Julia looked at the pale woman in front of her. "I hear what you are saying, but I cannot forgive your son for what he has done to my daughter, and until Justine forgives Draco, I will not either. I appreciate that you came to tell how you feel, and I thank you for the visit, but I think that you should leave now."

Narcissa rose to her feet, but she kept looking at Julia, and, in an anguished voice, she pleaded, "Please, don't be angry with Draco, please. He's had so little love in his life; when he thought he had been betrayed, he reacted without thinking. Now he knows what's happened, he is as distraught as your daughter must have been, realising that he lost the best thing he had ever had. You say that you will not forgive Draco until your daughter does … so I ask you, as a concerned parent, to talk to your daughter and let her know that Draco loves her, and now that he realised what really happened, he wants to apologise for what he did."

"And give him the opportunity to break her heart again?"

Narcissa's tear-strewn face crumpled, "Just consider it, please," she mumbled before turning and striding for the door.

"Narcissa, wait!" Julia called after her. "I'm on the defensive right now – if you had seen what became of my daughter when she returned home, you would be too. I will not promise to talk to Justine, but if the opportunity presents itself, then I will talk to her. For now, I see no reason for us to be enemies. My name is Julia Snape, it's been a pleasure to meet you," Julia said, she was such a softy when it came to people who cried. She extended one hand.

Narcissa caught it and they shook firmly. "Truce," she agreed. "And thank you. Now, I should probably go and find my husband and take a quiet nap – it's been quite a stressful day today."

Julia smiled, "Could you send Severus in to unbind me? Then I can kill him!"

* * *

_If anyone remembers the challenge it was in there somewhere. lol. Thanks to all and responses on the next chapter, cos' im posting two, cos' i feelbad for not posting for so long :D_

_Princess._


	16. The Moonlight Ball

Chapter Sixteen:** _The Moonlight Ball_**

In the Great Hall, Aurors crawled over _everything_ like a disturbed hive of ants, busily checking everything. Balconies had been added around the edges of Great Hall for the dignitaries who didn't want to dance. One team of Aurors was checking that the spells holding up the balconies were properly set, and wouldn't be able to be meddled with at all during the course of the night.

The floor of the Great Hall had been meticulously cleaned, and Professor Flitwick had charmed an illusion of rolling grassy planes with the aid of Fred and George Weasley, who were applying the same sort of thing as the removable swamp that they had created two years previously. They had decided not to make the illusion reality, because most of the women would be wearing high heels, and they had been instructed by Daphne Greengrass to make the Hall "Heel friendly".

The theme for the Ball was "Midsummer Night's Dream", and had been chosen by Hermione, as the Head Girl of Hogwarts. She had given the decorators directions that could be brought down to "a swirling forest of fairies, pastels and magic". To go along with this theme, Firenze had been chosen as the MC for the night.

For the moment, the Hall was set up with a huge stage at one end, and seats, theatre style across the floor. The seats were ornate, and decorated with squishy purple cushions, and it was suspected that Dumbledore had something to do with it. This set up was for the initial performances by the first four schools, the other four would be performing after dinner.

In the Entrance Hall, a red carpet ran down the centre, and thick ropes of flowering vines were suspended by golden poles alongside it on either side to keep the media back from the arrivals, at least to some extent. Hovering in mid air above the crowds were chandeliers that were glowing with candles to provide light for the evening, and each chandelier was festooned with flowers and vines.

The media was gathering around now, jostling for positions at the front of the crowd and setting up cameras as well as enchanted Quills that would write down what they dictated about the arrivals of the guests. Just as everything with the media was set up, the great oaken doors swung soundlessly open as the first carriages arrived.

The carriages were artwork in themselves, each drawn by a pair of perfectly white horses, the carriages themselves were gleaming white open air carriages with white leather interior. They, like the chandeliers, were decorated with flowering vines and fairies had been enchanted to fly around the immediate vicinity of the carriages.

Twilight had been brought on early in the grounds of Hogwarts, and the sun was setting over the lake. This had to have been a carefully crafted illusion that had been cast over the Hogwarts grounds by Dumbledore, so the entire thing was fake, although had you not known the time, you would have never realised that it was fake.

Cameras started flashing, and voices started babbling as the first carriage was drawn up. The door was opened by a half-human half-goat enchanted creature called a Fawn – these creatures had been enchanted to become servants for the evening, taking drinks around to groups of people and generally being butlers – and Harry and Hermione stepped down from the first carriage.

Harry blinked as the lights on cameras flashed brilliantly at him, but he walked forward as if he could actually see, with Hermione walking beside him, one of her hands resting lightly on his arm. He hadn't particularly wanted to come with Hermione that night, but when he had gone to her to ask if they were still going to ask if they were still going to the ball together. Her response had been "Yes, of course", and there had been no arguing with her.

Once they were past the media crews, Harry led Hermione to the seats that had been designated for them, and they sat down, not talking to one another. As they waited in an uncomfortable silence, Draco and Ginny walked in and took the next seats. Harry smiled at them, and Ginny smiled back, although Draco looked completely out of it.

"Draco, are you alright?" Harry asked.

"Don't go there," Ginny advised him, and laughed softly.

"What?"

"Just remembering something that happened earlier," Ginny replied, but she didn't say what.

_Ginny had not yet organised a date for the ball. She had been going to go with Ron, because there wasn't anyone she actually liked, and if she went with her brother, no one could take it as being anything. But now she didn't think she could handle that. More than likely she would want to hang out with the Australians, and Ron would take that very badly._

_That meant she had to either find someone else who wouldn't take her going with them as being anything other than a partner to a dance … who else in the school wouldn't? Well, Harry, obviously, but he hadn't been able to get out of going with Hermione. Then she had an epiphany – _Draco Malfoy_. He had just found out that Justine had always loved him, and she was pretty sure that he still loved her; therefore he wouldn't take the fact that they were going to the ball together as a forerunner to something serious. _

_She'd gone to his door and knocked, waiting for an answer. There wasn't one, so she knocked again. She knew he was in there. There was still no answer. "Draco, if you're doing something that you don't want to be interrupted in, stop it now because I want to talk to you," she called._

_Still no response from inside. "Well, I warned you," she called, and pushed the door open. Draco was lying face down on his bed, but she didn't think that he was asleep. "Draco, are you awake?" she asked, just to make sure._

_There was a mumble from the bed which she took for a yes. "Are you alright?"_

_This time the response was coherent, "No."_

"_Do you have a partner for the ball tonight?" she asked him._

_Draco rolled onto his back and looked at her with blank eyes. She was relieved to note that he hadn't been crying, because Draco crying would make it seem like the world had gone completely and utterly insane. "What Ball?" he asked her._

"_The Moonlight Ball," Ginny said slowly. What the hell was going on here? Draco couldn't remember that the _Moonlight Ball_, one of the biggest social attractions to the Unicorn Hunt, was going on tonight?_

"_Oh, that," he said absently, "I was going with Daphne, but I told her to find someone else. Why?"_

"_Well, as the Head Boy of Hogwarts, you do _have_ to go," Ginny pointed out._

"_I don't want to. If I don't have a partner, then I can't go anyway. It would be embarrassing to turn up to something like that without a partner."_

"_Then you can go with me," Ginny told him firmly. "You have to go, after all."_

_Draco just shrugged and rolled over onto his stomach again. Ginny took this as being a "yes"._

_If Ginny hadn't organised him, Draco wouldn't have managed to even get ready for the Ball. He seemed to have gone into shock after hearing the truth of what had happened.

* * *

_

Slowly the rest of the Hogwarts students came in and took up their seats. Hermione and Draco, along with their dates were required to stand near the inside of the doors to welcome any dignitaries that arrived, and to over see the Fawns that were working as ushers in the Great hall. The schools were arriving first, though, and as each school filled in their places, the room began to hum and murmur with exited voices.

Outside the Kallaix students were just arriving. Fist to arrive was Alyson and Adam, both in white, and Jacque and Jeffery. Both boys were wearing formal suits. They walked down the red carpet, the Australian press pushing them to talk, but Alyson just stopped, smiled prettily and waved. No one else even acknowledged that the press was there.

The next Australian carriage to arrive bore Ax and Tanya, both of whom looked resplendent in black, Ax in a suit with black shirt and satin tie, Tanya in a black satin dress with a full skirt and long sleeves, although the whole top half of the dress clung to her figure, and the neckline scooped between her breasts to show her jewelled bellybutton.

Ax smiled charmingly at the ladies in the crowd, and Tanya had a strained looking smile on her face and was trying to act casual – it wasn't really working. As they cleared the area in front of the carriage, Saul and Tegan got ready to step out.

Tegan stepped lightly down, wearing lethal looking pointy white boots, her ivory pants clung to her curvy hips, then fell loosely and from the way they moved they were made of silk. She had on a female double-breasted jacket, which clung to her figure like a corset. Both were shot through with silver pinstripes, and her hair was sitting dead straight, thanks to Justine's potion.

Saul then stepped down and the crowd began to laugh and yell in delight, he too was wearing a double-breasted sit, except his was charcoal with pinstripes and ridiculous shoulder pads. He looked something like a gangster from an old movie, complete with tilted hat and pretend Tommy gun slung under one of his arms. Tegan looked back and blinked, somehow, that wasn't what he had been wearing two minutes ago. The little bastard had put a charm on his clothes that she wouldn't kill him before they arrived.

He strutted up to her and plopped a silver version of his gangster hat on her head, and only then did Tegan realise that together they now looked like the nineteen twenties mafia. She let out a giggle and grabbed his arm; they began the long walk down the red carpet.

"I'm going to kill you for this…" Tegan muttered through her plastered on grin, "you're gonna wish you never pulled this one."

"Oh, Tegan, why pretend, you know you want me…" Saul said with a grin as they entered the Great Hall and breezed past the Hogwarts students.

Tegan thought of the perfect comeback, and executed it perfectly. "And if I do, what are you going to do about it?" She said with a suggestive grin, and plopped herself between Alyson and Jacque, joining in their conversation animatedly as Saul was left gaping.

Saul and Tegan had been the last of the Australian's that Draco had seen arrive, and he was beginning to doubt Justine or Kris were coming.

* * *

He had managed to pull himself together and as the first of the non-student guests began to arrive, he had to admit that it was in great part due to Ginny that he was staying focused now. Before each dignitary she had taken it upon herself to tell him their name and a comment to say to each about their families. He didn't even know Ginny knew the French Minister had a five-year-old daughter who likes ballet.

Draco peered out into the Hall, and saw Gregory Crompton step out of a carriage and help Jean Wadsworth down to his side.

Harry drew Draco's attention suddenly by giving Nymphadora a hug and welcoming her. She was looking particularly lovely tonight, her hair long and soft caramel in colouring, and it was drawn back off her face. She was wearing a long velvet sheath in emerald green.

Her face paled as she saw the next guests arrived, however.

Severus Snape and Julia accompanied Gregory and Jean. Tonks took one look at the beautiful woman dressed in shimmering sky blue on Severus's eyes and her eyes filled with tears. No one but Draco and Harry saw her turn and take a seat in the darkness at the back of the theatre.

Harry arched an eyebrow at Draco, who only shrugged. He didn't know anything about it either. Greg beamed at Harry, "Good evening Harry," he was cheerfully, completely ignoring Draco.

"Good evening, Mr. Crompton," Harry said formally.

"Hey, didn't I tell you to call me Greg?" he asked, "You come and have a chat to me later on when you've finished greeting people. I think Jean would like to talk to you too."

"I'll do that," Harry said hurriedly. Someone else was coming up behind Greg, and they didn't want to have a hold up. Greg nodded, smiled once more, and headed to his balcony box seat with Jean.

"Soon the celebrities will be here," Draco remarked, "Then things will get interesting around here. Celebrities are usually a lot of fun."

Harry nodded. He hadn't had much to do with celebrities, but he knew that Draco had, even since Remus had married his mother. Draco liked to keep up with the social scene, after all.

Finally the dignitaries were through, and the celebrities would be following. Suddenly the air was filled with white flashes as what seemed like every single camera in the area went off. "Must be someone really famous," Draco remarked, craning his head to try and see who it was through the blinding glare of camera flashes.

Finally their visions cleared and Justine came strutting up the carpet, jaws dropping in her wake. Her dress was halter necked, with a low neckline, the thing was completely backless, falling very low. But the phenomenal thing was the fabric, a liquid silk it hugged and caressed every line of her body, and there was no way she was wearing anything underneath – but the thing that seemed to have attracted most of the media attention was the fact that she hadn't come with _one_ partner. She had brought two.

On her right arm was Kris resplendent in a charcoal three piece suit, with crisp white shirt open at the neck, and her left was the world-famous Mark Grey who was wearing a black suit jacket and pants teamed with a white turtle neck. Justine was smiling at the press, and looped around one arm was a necklace with _Mark's Gal_ facing up, then, as she turned her head to answer a question that Mark had answered, the necklace flipped over to say _Kris's Gal_. The camera's went nuts again. The trio approached the doors.

"Hiya Harry!" Justine smiled at him, seeming more cheerful than he would have expected after what he'd seen of her earlier. Kris nodded at Justine and mouthed "_Cheering charm_" at him. Harry nodded his understanding.

* * *

Tonks hid in the shadows, tears streaming down her face trying to decide what to do. She'd already agreed to come to this thing – well, actually, she'd pulled in a couple of favours so that she could come, because she figured that she'd be able to talk to Severus about what had happened between them.

She didn't know what to do. He'd turned up with the most beautiful woman she had ever seen standing at his side, laughing and talking softly with her – they obviously knew her well. Maybe she was his wife … good lord, had she never considered the fact that he could already be taken? She'd acted without any thought of the consequences, as usual.

Maybe Severus had never intended for them to be anything more than a one night stand. Had he cheated on his wife with her, and now he just wanted to forget about it all? Well, she couldn't leave now – she was here and she would have to spend the whole night staring at Severus and his partner, and wishing that she was walking beside him.

* * *

Harry was sitting between Hermione and Ginny, with Draco on the other side of her, sitting in the isle seat, and he was feeling rather uncomfortable. Ginny he was fine with, but he didn't know how to act around Hermione anymore. So he was just staying quiet. Ginny seemed to be the same as him – the one thing that they really had in common at the moment was the Australians, but with Hermione and Draco there, discussing Justine and the rest of them probably wouldn't be such a good idea.

He just wanted to the performances to start so that he wouldn't be surrounded by the uncomfortable silence any more. The first people up would be the Egyptians, and from little Draco had said so far this evening, they would be doing some sort of dance – and they wouldn't be wearing much in the way of clothing.

The curtains at the stage parted gracefully and Firenze came forward, hooves clicking as the struck the floor in the sudden silence of the hall. He walked up to a standing microphone and smiled into the crowd. Harry could hear some of the girls who hadn't seen much of the centaur gasping in delight at his features, which the girls seemed to find attractive, even with the horse body beneath the well defined human chest.

"Good evening," Firenze's mellow voice seemed to fill the Hall entirely, the relaxing tones washing over everyone and, as it passed over Harry, he felt his uncomfortableness declining as he relaxed. There _had_ to be a spell in Firenze's voice. "Welcome to a Midsummer Nights Dream. I am your MC for the evening, my name is Firenze.

"Through the evening you will be delighted by feats of amazing magic, fantastic talent and delicious foods and drinks … throughout the entertainment the Fawns will be bringing refreshments for those of you who require them, but now allow me to introduce the first act, done by Thundreds. They will be beginning with a traditional belly-dance."

Firenze gave a slight bow and walked backwards off the stage as the curtains closed around him again.

When they opened again, the five Thundreds girls were standing in a line across the stage. Two of them were wearing see-through chiffon pants, falling from the hips and then bunching at the ankles, the other three were wearing flowing skirts made of layers and layers of see-through white material. All of them had metal charms and belts adorning their waists and were wearing crop-top style tops.

The boys were behind them, half in the shadows, topless but with long flowing white pants, each of them holding a curved sword in one hand. Somewhere in the background a tune was struck up, and the dance began, the girls and guys danced together, the girls swaying their hips a lot, which was drawing the eyes of most of the males in the audience, while their female partners eyed off the Egyptian boys bare chests.

Electra suddenly took over the dance, as the others moved back and left her the stage. She was a brilliant dancer and her talent shone through amazingly in this dance. The entire audience was completely focused on what was happening on the stage, mesmerised by her supple body.

As the act closed the Hall burst into appreciative applause. Smiling and laughing, the Thundreds performers bowed while they curtains closed around them. When the curtains pulled back, Firenze was there again.

He clapped politely as well, "Congratulations to the Thundreds students for an excellent dance," he smiled, "Next when have Beauxbatons doing a Poetry reading. They will be starting with a poem in their native French, then we will have a translation of some of the more important parts of the poem."

Two of French students, one boy and one girl, came on stage, standing facing one another, and gracefully launched into a poem in their native French, using Charms and spells to enhance the performance. Down in the Kallaix stands, Justine was crying silently between Mark and Kris.

"What's wrong?" Kris muttered into her ear.

"It's so _sad_," Justine replied, "And so well done!"

A few seats down, Alyson was crying on Adam's shoulders, as the emotion of the play was obviously getting to her as well. "Just imagine what we could do if we added _sorcery_ to that," Justine remarked as the tears wound down her cheeks. Kris nodded, although he wasn't completely sure what was going on – it was obviously getting to those who spoke French, but he didn't understand a word of it.

Finally, the French poem wound to a conclusion, and the English translation began. Just a few minutes in which the French explained the vague outline of the poem, which was about two lovers in a plague struck country, and the only way that they could see one another was to stand across a field and just stare at one another. Then one day the girl didn't come, and the boy waited a year for the quarantine to lift, only to find out that his love had died.

Again, Firenze appeared after the act, and he was actually looking rather emotional. "Although they were unable to translate the full poem due to time restrictions," Firenze remarked, "As one who speaks French, I can assure those of you who were unable to find the full beauty of the words, you missed out on something special.

"Next we have Durmstrang, who will be performing a musical piece by a band native to their lands – this time, I might add, it will be in English, so all here will be able to understand the meaning behind the words."

The curtains opened again to show all of the Durmstrang boys standing at their instruments, all of them wearing black, one of them standing out the front at the microphone, standing waiting for the tune to start, since he wasn't actually playing. The beat started up and there was a loud whoop from the Kallaix students as they recognised the tune.

The introduction came to a close, and the song began,

"_O-oh, o-oh_

_O-oh, o-oh_

_O-oh, o-oh_

_O-oh, o-oh_

_No sleep, no sleep until I'm done with finding the answer_

_Won't stop, won't stop before I find the cure for this cancer_

_Sometimes I feel like going down I'm so disconnected_

_And somehow I know that I am haunted to be wanted_

_I've been watching,_

_I've been waiting_

_In the shadows_

_For my time._

_I've been hoping,_

_I've been living,_

_For tomorrow's all my life…"_

Harry listened as the song continued, looking at the Kallaix students, who had all gotten up and where dancing as much as the limited space allowed them to, most of them mouthing along with the words, though not actually singing them, to give the Durmstrang boy his glory – although Justine didn't seem to be able to stop herself when the 'o-oh's' come along. The first song came to a close, and the band launched straight into the second.

"_Feel I can stop, I wanna be alone just for awhile x _

_Along way from home, _

_And you say, I'll heal you, I'll always be yours_

_And you say I'll kill you if I do something wrong yeah yeah yeah_

_Still feels like the first time_

_To stand here by your side_

_Together regardless_

_We'll walk through the darkness_

_Still feels like the first day of my life…_

By this time, a few other students had gotten to their feet and were dancing, and a lot of the adults looked as though they felt very out of place, and weren't particularly enjoying it. Not so for Greg and Waddy, who were bopping together up in their box. When that song came to a close, everyone was waiting for the third, because there was easily enough time for one more.

"_Come on _

_Feel the dark tears me apart_

_Won't leave me alone time keeps running out_

_Just one more life I'm so sick and tired_

_Of singing the blues as you turn my life around_

_Come on_

_Tell me why do I feel this life all my life_

_I've been standing on the borderline_

_Too many bridges burned,_

_Too many lives I've hurt_

_Had a life but I can't go back_

_I can't do that, it'd never be the same again_

_And I know I don't have any time to burn_

_Come on…_

At the first 'come on', most of the students had gotten to their feet and were dancing around as much as possible. During the confusion, the Kallaix band-group slipped away to go behind stage and prepare for their act, which would be next.

When the Durmstrang students finished their piece, many of the adults in the Hall were clapping more from relief that the ordeal was over than anything else, although most of students were clapping enthusiastically. Draco had even managed to pull himself out of his stupor and was smiling, which Harry took to be a good thing.

Of course, since the indicator board that showed who would be performing next was flashing "_Kallaix Academy_", Harry was fairly sure that the good mood would not last very long.

"Well, that was … different," Firenze remarked as he came back on stage, and there was a bit of laughter through the Hall. "But a good show of talent non-the-less, and it demonstrated a sense of national pride that is to be applauded.

"Next we have Kallaix Academy of Australia, also performing three musical items, although they are all from different bands," he bowed and departed, and everyone got ready for the next act, most hoping that it would not be much like the one before – they had very little to worry about.

When the curtains were drawn again, the lights on stage were dark, and the Hall was filled with silence. There was undiscernible movement on the stage and suddenly a single spotlight picked out Ax sitting behind a shining black grand piano. He was still wearing his suit shirt, but had lost the jacket and tie, He smiled and said to the crowd, "_My Immortal_."

He began to play and a hushed awe fell over the crowd. Just by playing the fist bars Ax's talent came through, and he put everything he had into the music, his body moving with the keys.

The black curtain at the back of the stage suddenly parted and Justine walked through, also spotlighted. She was still wearing her silver silk dress and as she walked forwards her entire body seemed to be fluid, the diamonds at her ears, throat and wrist glimmering and sending out sparks of colour. She stepped up to the mike and her voice washed over the audience, and each and every one couldn't help but feel the emotion right down to their souls.

"_I'm so tired of being here, suppressed by all my childish fears._

_If you have to leave, I wish that you would just leave._

_Cause your presence still lingers here, and it wont leave me alone…"_

The crowd suddenly noticed as the lights came up that Tanya and Alyson were standing to the back of one side of the stage, both holding Violins, and Tegan was next to them, sitting with her Bass. As the song continued they joined in the tune, and again the audience felt a jolt of sorrow, a physical reaction, reaching deep into their souls.

"_These wounds wont seem to heal, this pain is just to real_

_There's just to much that time cannot erase…_

_When you cried I wiped away all of your tears,_

_When you screamed I fought away all of your fears_

_And I held your hand through all of these years_

_But you still have, all of me."_

As Justine finished the chorus she reached one hand out over the audience, the other wrapped around the microphone. Around him Harry could see tears trickling down cheeks and had felt the wave of an unfamiliar magic sweep over him. So this was Sorcery. Magic that used body movement and one's voice to enchant the Audience. Harry figured it had something to do with the fact that he was a Magai that he was able to both feel the sadness, and also see through it. Poor Hermione at his side was sobbing silently, and Ginny at his other side was holding a crisp white hanky fiercely.

Looking past her, Harry saw Draco, and wondered how his brother was coping with this new development. Draco didn't look sad, as such, but there was that look on his face that he got whenever a normal person would be showing emotion, Draco looked up and saw Harry's eyes on him, he gave a half smile. Harry knew then that Draco was masking his emotions completely, but there was a blackness expanded around his pupils – soon his eyes would be black with the magic.

As he watched, something changed in Harry's vision. Looking at Draco, he could suddenly see the sorcery in the air, weaving its spell around the crowd, but it was just washing over Draco, forming loosely around him, then moving on. Looking at himself, he noticed the same effect.

"_You used to captivate me, by your resonating light_

_Now I'm bound by the life you left behind_

_Your face it haunts my once pleasant dreams_

_Your voice it chased away all the sanity in me_

_These wounds wont seem to heal; this pain is just too real_

_There's just to much that time cannot erase…"_

Harry swore subconsciously as Draco listened to the words of the song. This was bad, Justine was putting every ounce of her emotion into the song. Suddenly Justine threw out her hands, sending a powerful wave of magic twining around the audience, and Harry watched as Draco's eyes focused on her wrist, on the diamond bracelet that Justine was wearing, the small heart shaped opal radiating rainbows over the crowd. Harry watched as Draco's face contorted briefly as the power of his emotion threatened to overwhelm him, then suddenly the mask was back in place, stronger than before, and his eyes were glinting completely black.

"_I've tried so hard to tell myself that you're gone_

_But though you're still with me, I've been alone all along."_

Justine was looking directly at Draco, her eyes seeming to search for something on his face, and a tear was trickling down her cheek, as if the sorcery she commanded was affecting her too, in some way. Behind him, Harry heard someone break out sobbing loudly, and twisted his head around to see, two rows back, Electra curled up against Leon's side, sobbing her heart out while he struggled to stay calm and comfort her – although he looked like he was about to cry as well.

_When you cried I wiped away all of your tears,_

_When you screamed I fought away all of your fears_

_And I held your hand through all of these years_

_But you still have, all of me,_

_All of me …"_

As the song came to the end, one last flood of emotion poured from Justine over the crowd, and even those who had so far managed to control themselves began to lose it. Draco, stone-faced and utterly still, just stared into outer space, as if he'd forgotten the world existed.

Justine suddenly grinned and bowed and the wave of sorrow was broken. The crowd leapt from their seats and applauded loudly as Justine took as second bow and the others came forwards to join her. The piano suddenly disappeared and Alyson, Tegan and Tanya left the stage as Kris walked out carrying two guitars, one looked electric although no cord issued from it, the other looked to be acoustic and Tanya came out with a pair of maracas in her hands.

Five seats were arranged in a semi-circle suddenly and the group sat down, Justine still holding her mike minus its stand, but Ax putting a lapel mike on his shirtfront that he took from his pocket. He grinned and looked up, and his voice rang out in to the assemblage, "Hey, are you all having fun tonight?"

The crowd cheered and Ax counted himself and Kris into a sensual rhythm. Tanya began gently shaking her maracas and Justine just smiled and sat back, draping herself over the chair seductively. When the singing began, however, it was Ax who was singing. His voice was sensual and seductive, and Harry could once more feel the waves of sorcery, this time woven by almost everyone on the stage, boys and girls. As he heard he opening words to the song, Harry decided that he was very glad that he was immune to the power of the magic. Those who had moments before been sobbing were now looking utterly ecstatic.

_We got the afternoon  
You got this room for two  
One thing I've left to do  
Discover me  
Discovering you_

_One mile to every inch of  
Your skin like porcelain  
One pair of candy lips and  
Your bubblegum tongue_

Every now and then Ax looked up at the audience and flashed a charming grin. Every time he did that, Harry felt the magic threaten to completely overwhelm him. Damn, Ax was good at this. In the air, Harry could feel the emotions of the entire room reaching boiling point.

_And if you want love  
We'll make it  
Swimming a deep sea  
Of blankets  
Take all your big plans  
And break 'em  
This is bound to be a while_

_Your body Is a wonderland  
Your body is a wonder  
(I'll use my hands)  
Your body Is a wonderland_

As the chorus finished, Harry jumped as he felt Hermione's hand on his arm. Looking at her, he could see an expression that he'd never really seen in her before. Pure transfixion – her gaze was fixed on Ax, but she was pawing his arm.

He froze. Even though he knew that he was completely over her, his body _wanted_ to respond to her advances, and he was suddenly caught by the urge to kiss her. He'd never realised how powerful this sorcery magic was. A full sorcery mage would almost be impossible for even a Magai to disarm.

Suddenly, Justine's voice joined Ax's, their two voices harmonising perfectly. The magic around the room intensified greatly, and Harry felt desire washing over him – he was really feeling the urge to start making out with Hermione.

On his other side, suddenly Ginny's hand found his arm, and Harry found himself sitting between two girls who were both pawing at his arms and staring at the stage – he wasn't sure whether to be flattered, amused, or annoyed.

_Something 'bout the way your hair  
falls in your face  
I love the shape you take when crawling  
towards the pillowcase  
You tell me where to go and  
Though I might leave to find it  
I'll never let your head hit the bed  
Without my hand behind it_

As Justine's voice fell out again, Harry mustered the courage to look around, and saw that roughly half of the room was making out with whoever was next to them. The other half was just staring at the stage with expressions of lust that made Harry feel rather uncomfortable.

With an interest that made him feel a little guilty, Harry turned to look at Draco. The expression on his face made Harry feel embarrassed. Draco was just staring up at Justine, open mouthed, eyes wide. Harry could see the memories in his eyes – memories of love.

Harry knew that Draco had honestly loved Justine, and that Justine had loved him back. That bond must be making the sorcery magic even stronger. Justine had never stopped loving Draco, somewhere deep inside her heart, and Harry now believed that Draco had never stopped loving her either.

Pushing thoughts of Draco and Justine aside, Harry went back to examining the audience. Struck by a thought, he searched out the Australian Minister of Magic, interested to see how Greg would be reacting to this magic.

He found Greg and Jean Wadsworth up in one of the top boxes, and his first thought upon examining them was to wonder if they'd raided the Hogwarts greenhouses. Both of them were 'bopping' to the music, but completely out of time. They could obviously not hear anything that was going on and were purposefully not looking at the stage.

Suddenly Greg stopped 'dancing' and seized up with laughter that Harry couldn't hear over the sounds from the stage, pointing at something down on the floor. Harry turned to look where he was pointing, and immediately wished that he hadn't. In the staff row, Dumbledore was trying to fend off Professor McGonagall, who was looking very … into the music.

_You want love?  
We'll make it  
Swimming a deep sea  
Of blankets  
Take all your big plans  
And break 'em  
This is bound to be a while_

_Your body Is a wonderland  
Your body is a wonder  
(I'll use my hands)  
Your body is a wonderland  
Your body Is a wonderland_

As the song came to and end, the sorcery clung in there was Ax played a little solo on the guitar, gradually falling away into silence until he stopped altogether and the spell was lifted. Everyone in the hall jolted upright, gasping for breath, as the spell released them, mostly looking acutely embarrassed – upon checking, Harry found McGonagall on her feet and heading for the door, her cheeks a deep scarlet. Dumbledore looked … _disappointed_?

"Wonderful!" he called out jovially. "Best display of sorcery I've seen in years! You almost had _me_ fooled for a moment there!"

"Well, I have to admit, I'm rather glad we didn't," Justine said, not thinking, then held up a hand as the Hall broke into giggles, "Not meaning to be offensive or anything but that would be a little … besides, you aint seen _nothing_ yet!"

* * *

Tonks, hiding in the corner of the Great Hall, was looking for an exit. That song … she'd never felt anything like it. She'd looked for Severus instinctively when the magic took over her mind, but when she found him, she decided that she'd have been better off with mindless delusions. The beauty that he'd come with had been wrapped around his arm, and while they hadn't been making out, they were obviously more than simply friends – she could see it. It wasn't just the music talking. Looking up at him now, she saw the woman still holding onto Severus's arm and laughing up at him, while he just smiled back down at her.

* * *

"I agree with Albus, the best display I've seen of sorcery in some time," Severus remarked, "Look at Saul over there, I'm surprised at his professionalism. The boy is not renowned for his finesse." Sitting behind the stage, Saul was wearing earmuffs and staring at his mixing table with an expression of concentration on his face, obviously preparing for the next song.

"You should meet his father," Julia sighed.

"Do I really want to?"

"On second thoughts, probably not. Where the children have an amazing amount of intelligence … the father just has the humour, really. Adorable guy, really, but … over the top. Very over the top."

On the stage, Justine was back standing at the front, Ax was back at the piano, while Kris had taken over the electric guitar. Tegan still had the electric bass, and Alyson had rejoined the group, holding a violin, and Tanya had quickly set up a drum kit at the back, Jacque stood beside the drum kit. Everyone had a small mike issuing from one ear, except Justine, who had the main mike on a stand in front of her.

The audience silenced, wondering what was going to happen to them this time – they'd had heart-breaking sadness, followed by sexual ecstasy … what next?

Justine raised her arm slowly above her head, and as she moved, the curtains pulled further back to show Saul sitting in a room behind the stage, sitting hunched over mixing boards, earphones snapped firmly over his ears so that he could actually concentrate. Some of the Muggle-born students were expressing whispered opinions about whether it was actually technology working there, since it wasn't supposed to work in Hogwarts.

Suddenly Justine arm came crashing down and with a boom like thunder the music boomed through the air, all starting out together, just playing together for a moment, but as Justine began to sing, the guitar, bass and drumming stopped, and instead, Saul mixed a funky sound under Justine's voice, accompanied by the piano and violin still.

_Catch me, as I fall say your here and it's all over now_

_Speaking to the atmosphere no one's here and I fall into myself_

_This truth drives me into madness_

_I know I can stop the pain if I will it away_

_If I will it all away_

Justine was belting out the song with immense force, and all the instruments came crashing back into the chorus, with an immense rock sound.

_Don't turn away (Don't give in to the pain)_

_Don't try to hide (when they're screaming your name)_

_Don't close your eyes (Gods knows what lies behind them)_

_Don't turn out the light (never sleep, never die)_

_I'm frightened by what I see_

_But somehow I know that there's much more to come_

_Immobilised by my fears and soon will be blinded by tears_

_I can stop the pain if I will it all away_

_If I will away_

_Don't turn away (Don't give in to the pain)_

_Don't try to hide (when they're screaming your name)_

_Don't close your eyes (Gods knows what lies behind them)_

_Don't turn out the light (never sleep, never die)_

As the next part began, Tegan and Jacque's voices joined Justine, first in a harmonic undertone, almost operatic in it's sounds and the audience a wave of something wrong. Nothing they could put a name to, but there was something.

_Fallen angels at my feet_

_Whispered voices at my ear_

_Death before my eyes_

_Lying next to me I fear_

_She beckons me, shall I give in_

_Upon my end shall I begin_

_Forsaking all I've fallen for_

_I rise to meet the end_

Justine suddenly sang out one high pure note under which the music strengthened, with Kris leading on the electric guitar, Justine abandoned the microphone and danced around the stage, wandering up to each of the males and dancing with them for a moment before moving on.

When her next line came, however, she was back at the mike and ready to sing with Jacque singing the lower harmony for the next chorus, Justine had a sadistic little smile on her face as she increased the melody belting out a strong lead line, and as the chorus ended, a chant began under them,

"_Servatis a periculum_

_Servatis a maleficium"_

"What the?" Hermione muttered at Harry's side, Harry could feel fear washing over the audience, something tangible in the summer evening air. "_Slave to danger, slave to evil_? Why are they singing _that?"_ Harry could tell that the song was getting to her – the whole thing wasn't as powerful as previous magic, he supposed that they didn't want to incite full scale panic.

"They're making us feel of the aspects of the emotion plane," Draco's voice came from beside Ginny, "Sadness, happiness, now get ready for fear. This should be good."

"Only you would say that, Draco," Hermione hissed on Harry's side.

"Shut up," Harry and Ginny said simultaneously before Draco could respond and the pair of them got into a fully fledged argument, as often happened when statements like this came up – no matter how scary it might become, Ginny wanted to hear the rest of the song.

On the other side of Hermione, Ron grabbed his friend's hand, as well as Luna's, on his other side – he was already scared, staring up at Justine as though she was the devil come to steal away his life. The last chorus ended on a single note, held by Justine as the boys and Tegan took over the chanting, then the note changed to become a part of the chanting.

As the song itself was finished, the instruments played on, but the girls drifted away from their instruments to stand across the front of the stage, each an equal distance from the other apart from one another, apart from Tegan, who was anchoring the girls physical forms, standing with her arms arched around her head and her palms flat together just above her head. Standing just in front of Tegan, in line with Justine and Alyson, where Kris and Ax. They were standing side on, one had extended out towards the girls, palm up and fingers splayed, their back feet in line with Tegan, and their back hand in mimicry of the extended hand, but pointing to the ground instead, anchoring the magic. On the far sides of Kris and Ax were Jeffery and Adam, who were anchoring Jacque and Tanya respectively.

Through this, the instruments continued playing magically, and Saul was mixing busily in the background, hardly even seeming aware of what happening on stage.

Around the girls at the front of the stage, pillars of light began form, twisting, around them, white around Alyson, gold around Tanya, pink around Justine and red around Jacque. For a moment, the girls were completely obscured by the light, and when they appeared again, they crowd gasped.

Dressed in a contraption that seemed made entirely from tiny cherry-blossoms, which only covered the essentials before the back of the dress fell away in a train of pink, leaving her legs free, and there were cherry blossoms threaded through her hair. Jacque was wearing a black dress that seemed to be on fire, Tanya's body was covered in large patches of golden-red leaves loosely forming the shape of a dress with a crown of leaves around her head, and Alyson was wearing a dress that seemed to be covered in icicles and fairly whole, her anchor was her brother after all, and her white-blond hair was floating spectral-like around her in a cloud. All four of them were hovering just a little bit off the ground.

Harry, watching the girls, was feeling a little out of it. These new forms that the girls had taken were hovering spectrally in front of their real bodies, which he could also see, though he was pretty sure he wasn't supposed to be able to, a quick look at Draco confirmed that his brother could see the dual forms also. The real bodies were standing; heads bowed and hands in prayer pose, chanting.

He looked across at the Kallaix students, wondering what they were making of this display, and he was a little worried to note that every single student was surreptitiously lowering themselves in their seats. In the third row back, Mark was shoving Oliver as far down in his seat as was possible, and then sank down himself. Up in the top box, Greg and Wadsworth were pushing their chairs back, getting as far from the stage as possible. Harry knew that this was _not_ a good sign. He reached out his arms, putting one around Hermione's shoulders and the other around Ginny's, and, without knowing why, both girls snuggled closer to him, as their subconscious minds were filled with a fear that they didn't understand. In an unexpected act of kindness Draco reached out and rested his hand over Ginny's.

Harry watched as the spectral forms drifted away from the real bodies, although he could see, just, a pale link of magic between the forms and their real bodies, and then the link continued from there to the boys, and then from them back to Tegan, who was holding the entire thing together.

_The four seasons_, the words echoed, unsaid, across the utterly silent hall, as Tanya's form lifted away from the stage and flew out across the Hall, and a gale wind blew before her, so strong that it was frightening, and there was _**malice**_ blowing through the gale, creeping into the minds of the audience, then suddenly her form swooped towards the ground and the air filled with screams, almost lost in the howling cry of the wind.

The wind tossed her, sweeping her around the Hall, tumbling her through the turbulence, then sweeping her towards the stage, just as Jacque's form took off. She didn't flew through the air, but rather swirled low across the audience's heads, and everyone was hit with a dead heat, and sense of gut-clenching_ **terror**_ that the heat would envelop their bodies and turn their very bones to ash. The screams intensified as terror burrowed deeper, following the trails that malice had left behind.

She passed over the crowd, then rose suddenly up into the air, and threw out her hands, sending fire flying from her spread fingers towards the top boxes, but the flames died out just before they reached their targets. Then she swooped, headed for the stage, where Tanya was hovering, just out over the crowd, sending gusts of wind every little while, and Jacque joined her, sending sparks to play on the wind.

Alyson moved slowly out towards the crowd, floating lightly on the air, cloud like, her hair rippling around her face, but unlike the others, she didn't move right out over them. Just a little way ahead of Jacque and Tanya, she stop, and held a hand up in front of her face, blowing out across her palm, sending a wave of ice cold _**suspense**_ out across the audience, and as the icy wind spread, it left behind a frozen wasteland. As the cold reached the far walls, Alyson snapped her fingers, and the ice in the air shattered and fell over the crowd, who, momentarily caught up with their bodies seeming incapable of movement, screamed again, re-finding their voices.

Harry watched as in her physical form, Alyson seemed to wince slightly, then still again.

Then it was Justine's turn, she floated up and then, almost as if she was dancing, she moved out over the crowd, and blessed _**serenity**_ followed in her wake as cherry blossoms rained from her form down upon the upturned faces of the audience, she spun and twisted over the audience, but as the serenity removed their fear, it didn't go away, deepening until they were so completely calm that they didn't know that they could bring themselves to do anything, to even keep on living. This was Justine's own brand of fear, when serenity became depression.

Then, gracefully, she turned and came floating back toward the other three girls, and each of those floated back to hover just before their bodies, Justine coming in to land last. Then, as they hovered their, Harry watched as Tegan brought her hands down in front of her chest, and the white lines of magic she held yanked backwards, dragging the girls spectral forms back into their physical bodies, then pulling their physical bodies back towards the boys who'd played their anchors, then further back from the boys and into Tegan, who then threw her arms back and down behind her, sending the magic into the ground where it could do no one any harm.

As the girls flew backwards, Justine managed to twist and get caught by Kris in a firm hug, while Tanya simply allowed her self to be pulled backwards and caught around the waist from behind by Adam, Jeffery caught Jacque who'd managed to slow herself down quite a bit off to one side of his body, bringing to rest gently against his chest, and Ax caught Alyson gently, swinging her into a princess hold, spinning right around, then setting her lightly on her feet in front of him.

Justine walked over to the microphone while the audience recovered themselves. The Kallaix people were the first to recover from the shock of the wave of emotions that had swept over them, and they all rose to their feet and cheered loudly, clapping and screaming their appreciation. In the top box, Greg and Jean were returning to their original seats and cheering as well, neither of them looking as if the students had done anything particularly bad.

Slowly, the rest of the Hall began to clap, and then, as they realised exactly what had just gone on, they started cheering until the Hall echoed with the force of the cheers. Justine, at the microphone, smiled happily, glad to have impressed everyone so much. "Not bad for twelve minutes of entertainment, was it?" she remarked into the microphone as everyone started calming down to listen to her. The crowd cheered again, and she laughed.

"What you just witnessed was, of course, _not_ merely singing – that was an example of Sorcery, a magic that seems to have been most developed in Australia, with a few exceptions worldwide. Sorcery is a magic that works with the body and with emotions – the piece you just experienced with a great example of what it could do. Sorcery, however, works primarily with illusions, so what you felt was not real, and never actually happened, the magic simply told you that it did."

* * *

Harry looked over at Draco to see what he'd made of this speech, and saw Draco staring a tiny cherry blossom that was resting in the palm of his hand. Harry blinked – hadn't Justine just said that it was illusion only? He could see on Draco's face that the other boy was confused by this same thing.

His shoulder felt suddenly weird, colder than the rest of his body, and he lifted up a hand to brush a couple of snow flakes off his shoulder, which made him pause. What was going on here? Glancing around the crowd, Ron seemed to have a singed finger, but he could see no one else with the same sort of problem. He figured that he would ask Justine about that later on.

The Kallaix people bowed again and headed off stage as Firenze came back onto the stage. "Well, that was … unexpected," he remarked, and he looked visibly shaken by what had just gone on. "An excellent example of sorcery, I must admit. But I will not keep you long now, for dinner awaits you."

Everyone applauded politely and Harry caught movement at the corner of his eye, turning to see Draco standing up – he must be going to look for Justine. Before Harry could speak out to stop him, Mark had slipped from the Kallaix seats, heading across the hall as if he was going to join someone else, and shoved Draco down into his seat, muttering softly, "Not right now." Before Draco could say anything, he walked off on his way.

The lights began to raise and Harry could get a better look at the room, and it's decorations. The ceiling was still enchanted, but it was covered in shooting stars and comets, and the walls themselves were no longer stone, rather they now all seemed to be standing in a clearing in the forest, as they were a solid mass of tree's.

With everyone still seated, the seats around them sudden morphed and moved from where they had been to form high backed, elegant silver seats, grouped around golden circular tables in groups of around twelve, each table covered in Roses and other beautiful pastel flowers, their scent wafting around the people present.

The dignitaries were called down from the top boxes to take their seats amongst the crowd – Greg and Jean immediately came to join the Kallaix table, while Adam stood up and went to join Oliver Wood at one of the other tables, which left Alyson without a partner, not that she seemed in the least fazed by this.

Fawns appeared in droves carrying golden menu's, decorated with white tassels and purple writing. One menu was placed in front of every person in the Hall and Firenze, who was standing at one of the tables since chairs were obviously not appropriate, spoke to the crowd with a magically enhanced voice, "When you wish to order your meal, simply speak the name of it clearly into your place, and it shall appear. I wish you pleasant dining at our sumptuous feast."

Saul led a quick round of cheering for this, as everyone turned to their menus.

**_Appetizers:_**

_Thai Laksa_

_Walnut and Pumpkin Ravioli _

_**Main Course**_

_Honey Soy Chicken, served with light Chinese fried rice_

_Blade Steak, served with plum sauce on a bed of potato_

_Cheese Quiche_

_+ All meals served with a choice of salad or vegetables_

Justine turned to the single Fawn who'd remained at their table and ordered a drink, everyone else on the table followed suit, and the Fawn darted away to collect the drinks.

* * *

Harry, seated between Hermione and Ginny again, sighed as he looked over the Hall. Hermione, he knew, had made the menu deliberately short so that the House Elves wouldn't have as much work to do. Hermione was looking particularly splendid in periwinkle blue, a colour extremely similar to the colour of the dress robes that she had worn to the Yule Ball in forth year, but instead of dress robes, she was wearing a strapless sheath. Although she looked incredibly pretty, Harry didn't feel in the least bit attracted to her any more. His lack of feeling confused him, because although he didn't like how she was acting, he had thought that beneath this he did still like her … but perhaps he didn't after all.

His wandering gaze focused on the Australians, just as their Fawn returned with drinks. Justine had, predictably enough, ordered the strange silver drink, as had Draco, Harry noticed. Harry watched as Justine took a sip and smiled with a happy little shiver – she obviously liked this drink that she'd ordered.

Harry turned the Fawn that was taking the drink orders from his table, "Could have the same thing as Justine Snape from that table of there," he asked, pointing the table out to the little creature, which nodded slightly in acceptance, then scuttled over to the far side of the room to where a small opening in one wall was serving as the bar for the fawns to work from… it was bordered on both sides by heavily flowering frangipani trees, each festooned with hundreds of fairies.

"Oh, so now you're even drinking the same _drink_ as her?" Hermione asked, "Honestly Harry, just stick with something that you _know_ is good, like Butterbeer."

"Stuff that I _know_ is good? Like Ron is _supposedly_ good?" Harry demanded.

Hermione paused for a second, not sure how to react to that, then her eyes filled with tears, "Harry, why can't you understand where Ron and I are coming from?" she asked him, "Why do you have to support _foreigners _over your friends? Over _Draco_? He's obviously upset."

"Don't bring Draco into this," Harry snapped at her, "I'm supporting the people _I_ know are right."

"Hermione, how _dare_ you say that Harry is not supporting me? Do you even have a clue as to what is going on here? Keep your incredibly big nose _right_ out of _my_ business. Harry is supporting me – I just didn't realise it for a long time," he gave Harry a faint smile, then turned back to his meal as if he'd forgotten the conversation had even taken place.

"Then why don't you tell me what's going on? Why am I always getting left out nowadays? If you told me what was going on, then maybe I could understand where you're coming from! Why does a bloody _Snape_ know more than I do?"

"Maybe because that "bloody Snape" happens to be _involved_ in this situation, Hermione, and you aren't," Ginny told her, "And for once everything isn't revolving around you and your stupid books. Why don't you find a dictionary and look up the word "confidentiality", then apply it to this situation. Those who need to know, know, and you aren't one of them."

Everyone on the table fell silent, even those who weren't even involved in the conversation. "Did someone just call books _stupid_, in front of Hermione?" Seamus asked, "I wish I'd had the guts to do that years ago!"

For a moment Hermione just stared at Ginny, and the tears were welling in her eyes again, "Then why do _you_ know?" she asked Ginny, stalling for time to try and collect herself without letting the situation fall away before she could come up with a proper come-back.

"I shouldn't be involved," Ginny shrugged, "But I was, without intention. I wish I wasn't."

Before Hermione could say anything, Mark walked up to Harry and slapped a hand down on his shoulder, "_Mate_," he greeted him, "You promised Greg you'd come and see him. Since there's a free seat between him and Aly, we need you over there soonish, cos otherwise you'll miss the first meal!" without waiting for answer, he gave a firm nod and wandered back to his table

"You aren't going," Hermione told Harry immediately.

"Yes I am," Harry replied and stood up straight away, stalking over to the Kallaix table, then leant over Justine's shoulder, placing one hand on either side of her to whisper in her ear for a moment. Suddenly she laughed and held up her drink for him for a sip. Harry took one and then gave her an amazed look, gesticulating madly in an attempt to convey supreme pleasure. She just laughed again, and he went to sit down between Greg and Alyson.

* * *

Justine started slightly as a hand appeared on either side of her and Harry leant in close to her ear. "Who's idea was it to save me from them?" he asked.

"Kris noticed there was something nasty going on over there, so I told Mark to come and get you over here," Justine replied.

"Thank you," he told her, "Can I have some of your drink? I ordered one, but I don't think I'll ever see it."

"Sure," Justine replied and held up her drink for him to take a sip. The moment he did, Justine could see it in his eyes, he fell in love.

"That's _good_! I'll never knock Draco about drinking that again … sorry," Harry said.

"Don't worry about it," Justine shrugged, but Harry could see a slightly melancholy look appear in her eyes, and hurried over to sit down between Greg and Alyson.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" Harry asked Greg, who glanced at him when he sat down.

Greg snorted loudly, "You want to talk to an old decrepit man like me when there's a beautiful young girl your age sitting abandoned next to you? Are you insane, or just plain stupid? Chat her up! Do you need to borrow a pick up line? Ax is just across the table, he's a _master_, mate, you got no idea!"

Alyson lent around Harry and slapped Greg over the head, "I don't think Harry needs pick up lines … and definitely not from Ax – those are so stupid it isn't funny … he's been using them on me for years and they aren't working, so I wouldn't advise you to try - just be yourself if you want to win my heart," she fluttered her eyelashes at Harry before going back to her food.

Greg leaned furtively towards Harry and then said in a very loud stage whisper, "You're in!"

Calmly, Alyson reached around Harry and slapped him, a second behind Jean Wadsworth, and Greg flinched as someone under the table kicked him. "I don't know why I even bother. I'm so unappreciated!"

"I really do value your advice," Harry told him sincerely.

"No you don't," Justine told him, "Don't worry, Geggly won't get offended."

"Who's Geggly?" Harry asked, then looked at Greg comprehendingly.

"Don't ask," Greg said, and Harry looked imploringly at Justine, obeying the instruction but still eager to know what was going on.

"I was three, and how was I supposed to know how to pronounce Gregory? The closest I could get was Geggly, and it kinda stuck. I'm the only one in the world who gets away with it?"

"What, calling him Geggly?" Saul asked.

"It's my experience that anyone _can_ call him Geggly, but only Justine doesn't scowled at when in public," Tanya remarked. Sure enough, Greg was glaring daggers at Saul.

"So, Tanya, how did you get that dress? Isn't it the same one that Justine discarded at the shop?" Harry asked Tanya.

Tanya rolled her eyes, "Well, it turns out that Ax stayed behind and bought it for me," she told him, "He said that I looked a 'vision of perfection' when wearing it, and therefore would have to wear it again so that the world would not miss out. I told him he was stupid, but I could hardly turn it down, after all, it is the most beautiful dress I've ever seen."

"Don't you mean second?" Justine called out, gesturing at her own outfit.

"Whatever," Tanya called back.

Saul was glaring at the menu, "Do these people not have any decent food?" he demanded.

Tegan looked at him, "Saul, you spent ten minutes between your first bite and the second one of the Laksa going on about how great it was, and now there 'isn't anything good' on the menu?"

"The _appetisers_ were great – the meals suck," Saul informed her coolly, then turned to his plate and said, slowly and clearly, "_Vegemite toast_," to the utter amazement of the rest of the table, his plate immediately filled with steaming toast covered in vegemite.

"Bonza!" Saul yelled delightedly, "Take that menu!" then he turned to Tegan and said in an outrageously fake gangster accent, "Darlin', we're gonna dine on the vegemite, that which is the giver of life."

The rest of the table laughed, and ordered the food on the menus, more to be polite than anything else, although Tegan stole several pieces of Saul's toast, and he stole bits of her steak, while they laughed and made small talk.

Once the main course was over, an elegant Lazy Susan appeared in the middle of the table with a selection of deserts, and everyone on the table selected one. Harry and Greg got into a discussion on defence spells and the times when it was appropriate to use them, a discussion which Jean was happy to contribute too, and the subject soon got around to DA, which Harry was more than happy to explain to the Headmistress and Minister of Magic.

Once the deserts were finished, the Hall returned to the theatre style layout for the last five acts.

The first act after dinner was the Villefort students, who performed a very good flamenco dance, the ladies wearing long ruffled skirts swishing across the stage with lots of fancy footwork, the dance was incredibly sensual, but after watching the Kallaix performance, the emotion in it didn't seem quite so profound as it might have otherwise, and had the entire Hall cheering their skill as the act came to a close, and were followed by Nhi-Lon Fohs, who told the tale of Sinbad. After them was Grendwell, who performed a South-African tribal dance.

As the stage opened again, the Hogwarts people were standing at their instruments and Ginny was standing at the front with a guitar in her hands. Behind her, Draco was on the drums, Seamus was on the other guitar, and Dean was on the base. Ginny smiled at the crowd and spoke into the microphone, "Well, you don't need to worry, we won't play with your emotions … we don't know how," she grinned, and the beat started up.

_Tried to tell me what I shouldn't do _

_You should know by now I won't listen to you_

_Walk around with my hands up in the air_

_Cos I don't care_

Ginny was hardly moving at this stage, but she looked like she really wanted to – the song did seem to make you want to move, but because she had the guitar in her hands she was a little restricted in her movements anyway, so she seemed to be trying to channel her feels into the music, and the whole hall was already starting to feel the desire to move.

_I'm alright, I'm fine,_

_Just freak out let it go_

_I'm gonna live my life_

_I can't ever run and hide_

_I won't compromise, cos I'll never know_

_I'm gonna close my eyes,_

_I can't watch the time go by, _

_I won't keep it inside_

_Freak out let it go_

_Just freak it out let it go_

By the end of the chorus, most people were on their feet, dancing, and Ginny was pacing around behind the microphone whenever she wasn't singing, still obviously wanting to dance – the audience danced for her., but it wasn't quite enough.

_Yeah, yeah, yeah .._

As she finished the second chorus, her eyes were closed and she was grinning, singing her heart out. The boys behind her were watching her every move, and it was obvious that she was leading the song with her voice and her guitar, not one of the boys behind her.

_Just let me live my life_

_I can't ever run and hide_

_I won't compromise cos I'll never know_

_I'm gonna close my eyes_

_I can't watch the time go by_

_I won't keep it inside_

_Freak out let it go_

_Gonna freak out let it go …_

As Ginny's voice faded out, the curtains closed briefly again while they reorganised, and when they opened again, Ginny was gone, and Seamus was standing at the microphone, grinning happily at the crowd. Draco was still on the drums, and Seamus still had his guitar, and Dean remained on the base. Draco had a small microphone coming down from behind his ear, as the second singer.

The music started, and soon Seamus's voice came in, a thick Irish accent turning the song from humorous to hilarious,

"_I heard you're doing OK_

_But I want you to know_

_I'm a dick_

_I'm addicted to you_

_I can't pretend I don't care_

_When you don't think about me_

_Do you think I deserve this_

_I tried to make you happy_

_But you left anyway_

Seamus had sung the first few lines with one hand clenched over his heart, a phoney heart-broken expression on his face, which inspired a lot of laughter from the audience, although that didn't seem to deter him at all.

_I'm trying to forget that _

_I'm addicted to you_

_But I want it, and I need it_

_I'm addicted to you_

_Now it's over, can't forget what you said_

_And I never want to do this again_

_Heart breaker_

_Heart breaker_

_Heart breaker …_

As he sang, Seamus overcame the obstacle of his guitar and pranced around the stage delightedly, doing little Irish jigs and kicks, putting every ounce of emotion he had into the song, causing it to become even funnier. The audience was up and dancing too, since Seamus's enthusiasm was infectious.

Ginny suddenly reappeared back on stage, looking very much a flirt and walking in circles around Seamus, pushing him away whenever he got too close, then beckoning him back again with a flirtatious smile on her face. The song faded out to much applause.

Again, the curtain went down and the stage shifted around. Now it was Draco's turn at the microphone, and this time, most of the other people in the band were a little unsure of themselves, as if they didn't know exactly what they were doing now, Ginny was on the drums, looking very like Tanya, Dean had base and Seamus had a guitar. Draco, however, looked perfectly assured of himself.

_I'm not a perfect person_

_There's many things I wish I didn't do_

_But I'll continue learning_

_I never meant to do those things to you_

_And so I have to say before I go_

When Draco started singing this song, which Harry _knew_ was not the song that had been planned for the last item, he knew that something had definitely changed. Harry had wondered just how Draco had reacted to Justine singing 'My Immortal' – now he knew.

And he was surprised. Draco was displaying _public_ emotion, which was a very big thing for him, as Harry was well aware. For all of his life, Draco had been taught to hide his emotions completely, and scolded whenever he slipped up … to do this was a big thing for him – Harry just hoped that Justine appreciated it.

Although the only people who would be able to find the true emotion in his words were those who knew what had gone on in the Draco-Justine fiasco, which meant it was him, Ginny and the Australians, that Draco could do this was a big step in the right direction.

_That I just want you to know_

_I found a reason for me _

_To change who I used to be _

_A reason to start over new_

_And the reason is you_

As the first chorus finished, Harry started to look for Justine, wondering how she would be reacting to this, glancing occasionally at the stage, because he knew that they hadn't practiced this song _at all_ – Ginny, Seamus and Dean were pulling off the song remarkably well.

When he found Justine, he didn't see the pain that he thought he would find, she was completely blank – it was impossible to tell if she felt any emotion at all at the moment. It being Justine, he was pretty sure that she was feeling something, but it must have taken a lot for her to keep in control of herself right now.

He wondered what she made of the song. Did she see it as the apology it really was, or did she see it as a challenge? Did she see it as anything at all, for that matter? Or did she see it as Draco throwing her past in her face, trying to hurt her … from her face, it was impossible for him to tell. Perhaps he should look for her in the dancing to make sure she got the significance of what had happened … it was hard to tell with her these days, she was that torn up.

_I'm sorry that I hurt you_

_It's something I must live with everyday_

_And all the pain I put you through,_

_I wish that I could take it all away_

_And be the one who catches all your tears_

_That's why I need you to hear_

_I found a reason for me,_

_To change who I used to be _

_A reason to start over new_

_And the reason is you_

_And the reason is you_

_And the reason is you_

_And the reason is you_

Justine gazed up at Draco, and while her face might have been blank throughout most of the song, her emotions were all completely out of control. She didn't know what to do – she could see that Draco was doing his best to tell her that he wanted her to come back, and let him in again … that through the song he was apologizing for what he had done to her, promising that he would be a better person for her.

As Draco finished the verse that he was on, she couldn't control herself completely anymore, and tears leaked from the corners of her eyes, to be quickly dashed away as she took control of herself again, and her mask returned. Tearing her eyes from Draco for a moment, Justine looked around at the Kallaix students.

Immediately she knew that they had picked up on what was going on as well, all of them were looking at Draco with a certain respect in their eyes, and when Kris saw her glance at him, he covered her hand with his own, giving her the support that she needed through this.

_I'm not a perfect person_

_I never meant to do those things to you_

_And so I have to say before I go_

_That I just want you to know_

Harry had spent most of his time watching Justine, and when she had let those few tears escape from her eyes, he knew that she knew what Draco was trying to do, and he thought that she might have actually forgiven Draco … though midnight would hold the real test for that theory.

Harry wondered if Draco had realised that Justine was crying – looking up at the stage, he got the impression that his brother had not seen. The lights on the stage would blind Draco to a lot of what was going on below him, especially something so small as a scattering of tears.

_  
I found a reason for me_

_To change who I used to be_

_A reason to start over new_

_And the reason is you_

_I found a reason to show_

_A side of me you didn't know_

_A reason for all that I do_

_And the reason is you._

As Draco finished the song, he was gazing straight at Justine, and it was all he could do to keep singing – he was glad that he had not looked at her before now, with the end of the song in sight, he didn't have to worry so much about keeping singing in time with the music.

Her face was so blank that he couldn't tell if the song was having the desired effect or not, and whether or not she had decided to come and meet him at midnight … if she had made a decision, wouldn't it be showing, somewhere, on her face? Draco turned his eyes away for the last words of the song, in disappointment.

As Draco looked away from her at last, Justine listened to the final words of the song, then smiled slightly. She had made her decision. At midnight, she would confront Draco – if only to tell him that his singing had improved a lot since the last time she had heard him, and to complement on his choice of song, and congratulate him on turning himself around, that at last his life had the direction it needed.

As the last bits of applause died away, everyone rose to their feet as the seats completely disappeared in clouds of rainbow lights, and the band Savage Garden took the stage to start of the dancing. The Aussies lost the plot as the two wizards and their entourage came on stage – they were Australian wizards, after all.

At this time, Mark slipped away from the group of Australian students to mingle with the crowd and meet up with all the celebrities that he'd stared alongside in various movies, leaving Justine to dance with Kris, once the whooping had died down.

"Kris, what time is it?" Justine asked him, as they bopped along to the music.

"Only eight, still hours of partying to go yet," Kris assured her. She smiled at him, thinking _well, that minus the time I need to spend with Draco.

* * *

_

Tanya and Ax were dancing at the edge of the crowd, Ax had his arms around her and they were dancing slowly to the music. Being this close to Ax was driving Tanya insane. He was intoxicating, but at the same time, she knew that allowing herself to grow close to him again was dangerous. Was he going to hurt her again? If she let him close again, would he just tun around and break her heart? Could he help it?

Although he was holding her close, Tanya could almost feel himself holding back, not wanting to push her. Why wasn't he pushing her? Was he not interested? Or was he trying to pretend he wasn't interested? Or was he just not pushing her so that she could get used to what she was feeling on her own?

Having Tanya this close to him was driving him insane. He wanted her – badly. But how could she still want him? After what she'd seen him do? Sure, she'd forgiven him, but that didn't mean that she wanted anything to do with him …

_Do you just want her? Or is it more than that_? The thought surfaced, but he pushed it away angrily. She was a pretty girl, why wouldn't he want her? She even had a personality, which as an added bonus … but it was nothing more than the physical attraction that he felt to any other girl that he knew. It couldn't be.

_But could it_? The thought returned, _NO_ he thought back angrily, pushing it away and unconsciously pulling Tanya a little closer, trying to lose himself in the dancing and the music, pushing his stupid subconscious far away so that it couldn't make unfounded questions to which the answers were perfectly obvious.

Tanya sighed softly and lent against him. Dancing like this she could forget the past, forget the future, just live in the present. And in that state she could admit it – she was still completely head over heels in love. It wasn't just a crush any more. Getting to know Ax had just made him all the more attractive.

But even if anything came of this, could she keep him faithful to her? Or would he turn and follow the first pair of the pretty legs that walked past him, of the first pair of pretty eyes that battered their lashes in his direction. She sighed softly, giving up on trying to think and letting the music take over completely. She could think later, when she had a clear head.

As Tanya lent against him, Ax tightened his arms around her and smiled to himself above her head. So maybe _this_ was love … maybe this was what he had been searching for all of his life, what had constantly eluded his grasp … no … there was no maybe about it … this was love.

* * *

With the dancing to cover him, Draco slipped away from Ginny, leaving her to dance with one of the other boys who were hanging around, and went to drown his sorrow in some form of strong alcoholic drink … Justine hated him, and she would never talk to him again … and _now_ he decided to realise that he still loved her. Wonderful.

As he was attempting to drink himself into a stupor and forget the world and it's stupid twists and complications, Draco remembered something that Harry had told him – Ron had enlisted the help of his two older brothers, Fred and George, to break Draco's heart.

Well, he'd promised that he wouldn't take revenge on Ron, and he supposed he had better hold to that … but there was nothing to stop him from killing the twins before anyone realised what he was doing … he might end up in Azkaban for murder, but in his drunken mind, it would be worth it. If Justine would never love him again, then at least he could let off steam by killing something.

Draco looked around to see if he could find the twins, and when he discovered them, they were standing on either side of Alyson and flirting with her. She was just standing and laughing with them, letting them flirt and responded with little glances at each of them and small smiles.

And now they were taking advantage of someone as innocent as Alyson. Draco didn't know that Alyson could tell the _exact_ emotions of whoever was around her, and that if she thought that either of the twins had bad intentions, she would know and get out of there quickly and run to Mark, Kris, Adam, Ax, or even Saul.

He walked over, and suddenly Alyson smiled prettily up at the twins, and excused herself from the conversation, darting back into the crowd – heading, although no one knew it, for Harry Potter. The one person that she thought might be able to get Draco out of his mood. She had sensed that he had dark intentions.

"So," Draco said, looking at the twins, who smiled and nodded at him, looking after Alyson and obviously paying more attention to her figure than to his appearance.

"Hey Draco, how's it hanging?" Fred said, obviously attempting to copy the Australian accent, and failing rather abysmally.

"You two. I have something to show you in the hallway, come with me."

Fred and George looked at one another and shrugged, then followed him. Obviously they had no reason to distrust his intentions. Draco smiled to himself – oh, he would show them. They thought that they were safe now that all this time had passed but no … nothing would save them from him now.

When they reached the Hall, Draco spun around to face the twins the moment that no one outside could see what might happen. With a malicious smile, he threw up his hands and sent both twins up against a wall using his Magai powers. "Let's have a little _chat._ All pleasant and friendly like."

"We'd be happy to talk, but wouldn't it be just as effective on the ground?" Fred asked.

"Let me rephrase that," Draco said coldly, "I'll be talking … you just have to listen … and stay _quiet_," as he spoke, the twins lost the ability to make noise. "I want to talk about … let's see … two years ago sounds a good topic of conversation, what do you think?"

Both the twins looked momentarily confused, then their faces cleared and Draco knew that they remembered what had happened then. "So, let's clear up exactly what happened, shall we … your idiot younger brother comes running to you, because the girl of his dreams has chosen me after dating him … that's right, isn't it? This is what confuses me – why help him? One would have expected that you would have just laughed and brushed it off, thinking that your brother was too young to experience true love, and heartbreak was a natural occurrence … obviously that wasn't quite right … Your family must be closer than I thought. Instead, you decided that it would be _fun_ to destroy someone else's life.

"Unlike your younger sibling, I _found_ love – the kind of the love that lasts forever, the kind of love that nothing should be able to destroy … and Justine found it to … so not only did you ruin _my_ life, you ruined hers as well. Neither of us could love another person – we were lucky, perhaps, or maybe we weren't, finding love so young. We couldn't fully appreciate it, I suppose … Well, that won't happen again …

"But we should have never _lost_ that love – and it's your fault that we did. Now it's time to say goodbye to life. I can't hurt your brother, because I promised I wouldn't, but he couldn't have done it without you. If you had done the sensible thing and left well enough alone, I never would have lost my love … so now you can die for what you did to me."

Suddenly the door crashed open, revealing Kristopher, Severus and Narcissa, with Alyson walking behind them. "Draco! What are you doing?" Narcissa demanded.

"I'm not sure – I'm about to get creative. Don't interrupt please – while I might want them dead, I don't want to hurt you."

Kris looked between him and the twins, fast thinking of a way to negotiate Draco, play his weakness . "Oh … so this is your half-hearted attempt to get revenge on what happened? Well done, now you want to make Justine feel like she drove you to murder! She's delicate enough as it is because of you – now you're trying to destroy her completely, is that it?"

"I'm trying to make it up to her!" Draco yelled at him. "I made a mistake, and I bloody well know it! But they did something worse, and I'm gonna fix it!"

"Killing them will fix _nothing_, brother," Harry appeared behind the group and pushed his way carefully through. "Death solves nothing. Do you want to show the world that you really are your father's son? That's the only thing that you'll get out of this."

Draco looked between the twins and Harry and Kris. "I don't know what else I can do."

Harry held up a hand that glittered with rainbow sparkles, the light spread from his fingers and wrapped gently around the twins, breaking Draco's weakening hold on them, then walked over and put his arms around Draco. "You can get sober, for one thing," he informed his brother quietly. "Come with me and we'll have a talk – outside. The cold air should help to clear your head. And if it doesn't, I'm sure that the lake would make a difference."

Draco tried to struggle against Harry, but the Gryffindor boy caught hold of him by one hand and forced him out of the doors and into the chilly night air, leaving the others to deal with the twins.

Severus looked at the twins. "Unlike Draco, I'm not about to kill you … but I warn you – if you ever look at Justine, breath near Justine, even attempt to apologize to Justine you might find yourselves the victims of a tragic, fatal accident …"

"Severus, I have to point out," Kris spoke up again, "Justine wouldn't appreciate having you telling them that they can't come near her. She never blamed the twins for what happened – she _likes_ the twins. She wouldn't want to be left without their company – just one piece of advise for you: Don't try to tell Justine who her friends can be. She'll only hate you for it. Come on Alyson – let's get back to the dancing. Everything's alright now."

"Fred, George and I were having a conversation … I was enjoying it – if they're alright, I would like to get back to it," Alyson replied, smiling at Kris, Severus and Narcissa, then beckoning the rather dazed twins after her.

"How did those people know to come and get us?" Fred asked when they were out of earshot.

"I went to get them, of course. I knew what Draco was feeling at the time, and I went to Kris – he's good at dealing with things like that. He looked for Severus, and he was talking to Narcissa … I can only assume that Harry saw the disturbance and came to investigate," Alyson shrugged, then fixed them with a silver stare. "I saved your life then – but I expect you to apologize to Justine. She deserves to hear what happened just then from _you_. And I expect to hear of you talking to her about it … very soon. Not tonight though."

Fred and George nodded. "If you don't, I'll tell Kris and Harry," Alyson added, and headed away to join the Australians again, dancing with Adam and seeming to forget that the conversation had taken place.

"You know," Fred remarked.

"I'm feeling rather tired right now," George put in.

"So am I. So-"

"Let's retire for the night."

"Sounds good to me."

Fred and George made a hasty and unnoticed departure from the hall, and left the dancers to enjoy themselves. Harry and Draco arrived not long after they had left – Draco now looking rather sullen, but no longer drunk. His hair was a little damp too.

* * *

"Now that you have all loosened up after our delightful dinner," Firenze's voice echoed through the hall as the music died momentarily, "We have decided to hold some dancing games – the first to be suggested was the elimination game. The rules are these: When the music stops, you have to find another partner before it starts again. If you don not manage to find a partner, you are out. Once you have danced with one partner, you cannot dance with that person for at least another five rounds. This, however, only applies until the point where there are only ten couples left. You will be warned when this occurs. Everyone grab the nearest person to you and let the game began."

For the first ten or fifteen minutes of the game, the dance floor was a place of utter chaos as _everyone_ tried to play the game. By the time about fifteen minutes had passed, a lot of the not so good dancers had been eliminated and the better dancers were clearly beginning to show themselves.

Tanya and Justine were doing well – Justine was running on auto-pilot, just falling into the arms of the nearest person of the opposite sex, but Tanya was limited because she generally looked for someone she knew, and got thrown a little when a random guy caught her and they had to dance till the music stopped again.

Electra was also going well, as were Harry, Draco and Ginny, the stars amongst the Hogwarts people. Hermione was standing on the sidelines, having been eliminated early on in the piece.

Almost half an hour later the game had come down to five couples only, among them were Tanya, Justine, Electra, Ax, Harry, Adam and Oliver Wood. Tanya and Justine were quickly eliminated – Tanya because her unwillingness to approach people she didn't know really stuffed her up and Justine because while going on autopilot was well enough, it didn't work when you got to this stage of the game.

Finally, it was down to Electra, a girl from Nhi-Lon Fohs, Adam and Oliver. When the music stopped to two couples were a distance apart, and the girls were further away than Adam and Oliver were from one another – the pair of them glanced at one another, then caught each others hands and started to dance as the music started again. The two girls were too late and moved from the stage and Justine let out a cheer at their originality.

"Adam Childs and Oliver Wood are the winners of the Elimination game," Firenze announced as the music came to a final stop. "Congratulations, and very original both of you." The two boys blushed slightly and moved off stage, amid the applause of the watchers.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, let me take you back to an era of honour and beauty, when to dance with a woman, to hold her in your arms, was one of life's greatest pleasures. These intricate and beautiful dances although not celebrated as often today have lost none of their charm or splendour. Let us relive them now. We shall begin with the Viennese Waltz."

Justine turned to her uncle, who was standing not far away, having not deigned to dance in the elimination game, and waved him over. "Fancy a dance?" she asked him.

"I'm sure you will make my life a living hell should I dare to refuse, so I suppose so," Severus replied, taking her hands.

"Don't cha know it!" Justine replied, letting him lead her onto the dance floor, laughing at the look on his face before allowing him to spin her into the sweeping movements of the waltz. Severus was a good dance partner, Justine knew, and she would rather be dancing the waltz with him than with anyone else, because they didn't have to change partners in this dance, and she was ensured a dancer that could keep up with her on the floor.

Tanya was dancing with Ax, and they were a good pair as well. Electra was teaching Leon the moves as they went along, since he had never danced it before. Jeffery and Jacque were beautiful to watch – Jeffery in particular moved with a cat like grace that made him a brilliant partner.

Seamus was dancing with Ginny and Draco was dancing with his mother, while Remus danced with Tonks, and Julia danced with Gregory, talking softly to him, most likely gossiping, Justine thought watching them.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I trust that you enjoyed the Viennese Waltz, we will now move into the progressive waltz, so if you could gracefully move into a circular formation, we shall begin."

Justine and Severus found themselves next to Tanya and Ax, who grinned at them in greeting. Justine's next partner would be Ax, which was a good thing, because the boy on the other side of her didn't look like a particularly great dancer. As they swirled around the circle of men, Justine and Tanya were always next to one another, exchanging smiles whenever they passed boys who weren't good at dancing.

Tanya danced with Draco, and glanced back at Justine as they moved on, wondering how her friend would react to this – Justine seemed fine, so she didn't do anything, merely kept going with the dance … then she saw Ron. Justine would not deal well with having to dance with Ron. Judging by the expression on Ron's face, Tanya knew that the other boy was likely to try and talk to Justine, which would _not_ be a good thing.

She looked at Justine, to see if the other girl and noticed this, but Justine seemed totally engrossed in the dancing. When Tanya was dancing with Ron, however, Justine realised who her next partner would be, and her face fell. Tanya looked around her and signalled with her eyes. Justine smiled and nodded.

When the next time to change partners came, Tanya just didn't move on, and Justine wove gracefully around her, as if this was exactly what was supposed to happen. Ron was utterly confused and missed the first few steps to the next round of dancing, but picked up the pace quickly after that.

Tanya gave him a cool smile just before she moved on, and Ron glared after her.

"You should now have danced with all of the members of the opposite sex here," Firenze said, as Tanya spun into Severus's arms and Justine into Ax's. Severus arched an eyebrow at Tanya who mouthed 'Ron' at him – Severus nodded in understanding.

There were several more foundation dances, before a different tune struck up, and the fairies, which had been floating prettily overhead all evening suddenly came in full force over the dance floor. "Ladies and gentlemen, the fairies will now dance the ballet."

Everyone moved to the sidelines and watched the fairies overhead, dancing gracefully overhead, tiny legs twirling in kicks and flicks, all of them seeming utterly confident and perfectly at ease. Tanya watched them for a few minutes, then the desire to dance overcame her shyness, and she waved her wand at her feet, transfiguring her shoes into ballet slippers, and rising herself on her tip toes, then darting gracefully out under the faeries, copying their dance herself.

Justine and Alyson glanced at one another, then transfigured their own shoes as behind them Ax and Kris nodded and sent spells after them, changing the shapes of the skirts so that it would be easier to pull off the moves that ballet required. Justine and Alyson mirrored Tanya's eyes, but for the crowd, it was hard to take their eyes from the first girl to come out on the floor beneath the fairies.

Jeffery quickly transfigured his shoes and changed the fabric of his pants into something that he could dance properly in. Of the boys present, he was the one who was best at ballet – it was a dance that Kris, Ax and Saul all refused to go _near_ and which Adam would never be brilliant at.

Jeffery spun out to join Tanya as her partner in this dance, and together they pulled off several amazing lifts, although at one stage when Tanya came into for a leap, Jeffery just caught her and hugged her to his chest, then grinned down at her, "Try that again," he muttered to her, and they did.

All of them stuffed up several times, since it had been a long time since they had danced together and they had never heard the music that was playing now. Several students of other schools looked at one another and transfigured their own clothing to come out and join the group of Australians on the dance floor, but ballet was not something that the majority of the people gathered here seemed to know very well.

Celestina Warbeck was on stage, using her own sorcery to lighten people's hearts, rather than something like that dramatic display that the Australian's had put on earlier. She had had a long conversation earlier with Jacque and Jeffery about what was going on with Sorcery at Kallaix these days – she had graduated from the school some ten years previously, but still remembered a lot of the teachers.

As the clock neared the strike of midnight, Justine excused herself from her present company and slipped away out of a side door, heading for the clearing where she was to meet Draco. Isaac and Daniel, who had been watching her closely all night, nodded to one another and followed her out of the room to see where she was going.

Unnoticed by them, James noticed them leaving, which also drew his attention to the fact that Justine had left. He too excused himself from his companions and headed after them, wondering what business his girl might have with the two boys from sixth year. Surely she had more taste than to cheat on him with them.

He found her a few minutes later alone in a clearing, sitting on a stump that loosely resembled a bench. She was completely alone – obviously Daniel and Isaac had gone somewhere else after following Justine from the room. He walked into the clearing and sat down in front of her.

She looked up with a smile, but it faded the minute she saw him. What, had she been expecting someone else? After her display earlier tonight? "Don't try to play coy Justine, I know that you were singing for me about lust and love earlier tonight, and it was perfect … but you never lost my love, and you have no need to be sad about anything in our relationship – it's perfect."

Justine looked up at him, seeming confused, "I wasn't singing for you. I don't love you James, I wouldn't sing for you! I was singing for Draco."

"Oh, so you love him do you?"

"Yes!" Justine exclaimed, frustrated. She didn't _want_ to love him, but it was hardly something she could help, was it? The moment she said it, she knew it was a mistake, and she got up to get out of here, realising suddenly how very alone she was out here – if he attacked her …

James slapped her across the face, hard. "Slut! You're mine!" James spat at her. Justine's vision blurred with tears of rage and remembered pain. It was here, two years ago, that Draco had done the same thing … it had been as false an accusation then as it was now. She turned and ran, because her magic could not protect her now, and she had to get to Kris – Kris would make everything better. Her Magai powers were crashing against the confines into which they had been forced, and she wished suddenly that Harry's magic wasn't as strong as it was. She knew that her powers would not be able to break free until Harry allowed them to.

James caught her arm in a vicious grip just as she reached the edge of the clearing and she gave voice a little shriek as he spun her around and punched her in the stomach. She stumbled to her knees, winded and he grabbed her by the throat, forcing her up against a tree, his fingers biting into the delicate skin of her neck.

* * *

Draco was sitting at one of the tables, considering trying to get drunk again as midnight struck, and it was there that Harry found him. "Draco! What are you doing here! It's midnight!" Harry exclaimed.

"She's not going to come," Draco replied morosely.

"No, she just cried through your song for no reason at all! Of course she's going to be there – get your ass out there now Draco, before you lose your chance for ever," Harry told him sarcastically, pulling Draco to his feet and propelling him in the direction of the door.

Draco hurried a little until he was out of the door, then slowed to a dawdle to try and put it off. Suddenly he heard a scream from the direction of the clearing – a female scream … it was Justine! She was there! His face brightened, then darkened again – she'd screamed. Something bad was happening. He took off at a run for the clearing.

* * *

Although he didn't know it at the time, Daniel and Isaac had by this time reported to Kris, who had found Ax and Jeffery and was heading outside to make sure that Justine didn't get hurt out there. James's friends had told Kris that the other boy was missing, and Kris was worried about his Bunny … if James hurt her, he was dead.

Suddenly the back of his watch started to burn, and he gave a soft hiss – Justine really was in trouble. It was there that he kept the sensor the necklace around Justine's neck, something that would warn him when she was in danger and that would guide him to her so that he could protect him. With a yell, the boys took off in the direction of the clearing that Isaac and Daniel had told them about.

* * *

Draco raced into the clearing and snarled softly, a sound of animal fury that would have frightened anyone who heard it. Justine was lying on the ground, desperately trying to fight off the boy that he recognised as one of the Kallaix students – he was trying to rape her.

The boy suddenly punched her in the side of the head and she lost consciousness. Draco leapt into the clearing and threw out his hand, sending negative black energy in a wave straight for the other boy, who was thrown off Justine just as Kris, Ax and Jeffery thundered into the clearing, with the sounds of someone else following behind them.

"James! You're _dead!_" Kris yelled at James and launched himself straight for the other boy, sending him off his feet and landing on James's chest, punching him in the face repeatedly. Draco and Ax were trying to wake Justine up while Jeffery prowled dangerous towards Kris and James, pulling Kris off the other boy, then kicking James viciously in the side, making James curl up in a ball around the wounded area.

"You should have realised James … Justine said she was over you – you should have respected that. You should have realised that if you didn't take the hint, we would have made you, that if you hurt her, we would kill you… what gave you the right to touch her? You will die James – but not tonight. I want to see your life in ruins first," Jeffery informed the boy on the ground. Jeffery was coolly holding onto the back of Kris's shirt while the football player tried to attack James again. "Leave him alone Kris. He's not worth your time."

At that moment Mark came crashing into the clearing, obviously also summoned by Justine's necklace, which now hung limply from one of her wrists. With him was Harry, who had been talking to him when he felt the call. "I need you to get _everyone_ out of this clearing, right now! Draco … I think you should stay."

"Why should he stay!" Kris demanded.

"I'm about to release the dark magic held inside of her – Draco has the same magic, he will be able to sit through it and protect her. I cannot – the moment I release the spell, we all need to be as far from here as possible, and getting farther away as fast as we can," he looked at Draco. "When she wakes up, she's going to be hurting. When she calms down enough that she won't destroy anything that comes near her, take her back to the boat. Don't bring her back to the party, whatever you do."

Kris looked at Mark, Jeffery and Ax. "Ok, let's get out of here," he said, and walked started towards the edge of the clearing.

Harry gave them a look, "Take James to," he told them.

"Why?" Kris demanded.

"Because if he stays here, he will die."

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Kris remarked.

"If I don't release the power that Justine is holding within her, she could die, and I won't release it until James is out of here. Is that clear, Kris? I will not cause his death, no matter what he might have done. Now get him out of here so I can release Justine's power."

Muttering under their breath, Ax and Kris walked over to James, who didn't seem to possess the ability to move, and hoisted them up between him, utterly ignoring his half-formed protests. "If you don't shut up, we'll drop you and you can deal with the consequences on your own," Kris informed him, and he promptly shut up.

Harry turned back to Justine and Draco, and found Draco sitting on the bench-like log, with Justine held gently in his arms. "I'm ready when you are," Draco told Harry.

Harry smiled at Draco, thinking what a cute picture these two might have made – at least, if Justine hadn't been unconscious and Draco wasn't looking so grim. "Ready or not," Harry muttered under his breath and tapped into his powers. To touch his magic was pure joy, to feel it racing through his body, waiting on his command was something that delighted him more than anything else. He had to be careful that he did not lose himself him the glorious power of his magic.

He extended his hands towards Justine, and the sparkling rainbow that was the visual effect of his power covered the gap between him and the unconscious girl, gently seeking out the spell made of his power that waited for him there. Before he removed his spell, he gently reached into her hurting mind with his magic and worked a delicate spell to stop some of the pain, and bring her back to consciousness.

Justine awakened to find her world seeming to be made up of a beautiful, gentle, amazing magic that made her feel better than she had in a long time, and she smiled. Then she felt her power within her, raging at the boundaries that had been placed there, and she winced a little. Around her, arms tightened protectively, and she snuggled into the safe, warm chest of the male she presumed to be Kristopher.

She wasn't sure where she was, or what had just happened, but she knew that Harry was about to release her power, and that it was going to be a powerful reaction. "Kris, you should go," she muttered, only half awake. The arms tightened further, and she felt the chest sigh in relief.

"I am not Kris. You are safe, Justine, and so am I," Draco! What was Draco doing here, and more importantly, why was he holding her?

"Relax Justine," Harry spoke now. "Draco has the same magic as you, and he will sit with you through the release of your powers – he can withstand their force, and I don't think it would be a good thing for you to stay here alone."

"OK," Justine said, feeling calmer than ever before. Something Harry had done, perhaps …

Then the rainbow magic that surrounded her, holding her gently, keeping her safe, condensed around her, then pulled rapidly back, and she felt her power rushing after the retreating magic, filling her mind and the air around her with negative black. She nearly cried at the loss of the beauty that had been there before, but within moments emotion was forgotten as she struggled to contain the rising powers.

The moment that he pulled his magic back, Harry started running as fast as he could out of the clearing and back towards the castle. Behind him he heard an inhumane scream of fury and despair, and when he glanced back, he saw a pillar of purple-black magic exploding into the sky, obliterating the stars.


	17. Dinner, Reunions and Breakups

_This one's for Altari - who read the whole story and told me all about it on Yahoo messenger - glad you liked it Al.

* * *

_

_Chapter Seventeen: _**Dinner, Reunions and Break-Up's**

_She was in her favorite black jumper, sitting on the fallen tree branch in the moonlight. Justine was just beginning her fifth year at Hogwarts and it was a beautiful clear night. Draco would be here soon and she couldn't wait to see him. She smiled to herself and started humming the tune she had just heard as she walked past the choir room._

_Hearing footsteps coming up behind her, Justine was delighted as she recognized the even, proud footfall of her boyfriend._

In her sleep, Justine twisted a little, wanting to wake so she didn't have to see the boy that she loved become the monster who had haunted her memories for two years.

_Then suddenly the memory seemed to change somehow, and the dream became pleasant. Draco was there with her, holding her, smiling down at her, and she was looking up at him. "Draco, is this love?" she asked him._

"_Of course it is," Draco told her, grinning gently._

"_But is it true love?" Justine prodded._

"_I think so," he hugged her, "What about you?"_

"_I hope so," she replied, and hugged him back. He kissed her nose._

"_Besides, what's the difference?"_

"Justine? Justine?" a voice was calling to her – his voice. She stirred, opening her eyes and looking up into Draco's concerned face. He was older than he had been in a moment ago, his face showing strain and anxiety, though Justine couldn't place what would be upsetting him so much… that's alright, she was awake now, and she could make it all better.

She smiled and the ice and frost that Draco had carefully constructed around his love for Justine for the last few years completely vanished, evaporating and leaving him fresh and new in the spring. This was the smile he had missed, the one that he only ever saw her use for him, a sweet smile, the curved bow of her mouth curved at the edges and a tiny dimple in her left cheek, "Draco?" she mumbled. "Are you sure this is true love?"

Justine then remembered why he looked older. This was the new Draco. She looked up at him, blinking hazily.

For a second, Draco's mind went completely blank – what the hell was she talking about? Then the conversation she was referring to swam up through the recesses of his mind and he was assailed with the feelings he had felt for her that night. "You dream about that?" he blurted out before he could think of something more diplomatic to say. 'Good one Malfoy,' he thought to himself, 'smooth.'

Justine blinked, then her eyes widened and she started struggling in his grasp, trying to break free, the embarrassment causing her hands to start sparking again. He tightened his grip on her as gently as he could, though it was hard, the satiny fabric of her dress reducing his ability to catch her, trying to keep her in his lap and calm her down and soon she succumbed and lent against his chest with a sigh, her forehead on his collarbone tucked under his chin.

"What the hell are we doing here, um, together? Weren't we meeting at midnight?" she asked.

"Um…" Draco muttered – what the hell was he supposed to say to that? That he had been late and in the meantime some guy she had dated had just tried to rape her?

Suddenly Justine went utterly still. Raising her chin slowly she looked up at him, her beautiful green eyes filling with tears as she whispered, "James – he tried to … you – I was waiting for you, and you didn't come! What's going on, how did you get here? I want my mum!" She curled up against his chest and started crying, convulsive sobs wracking her frame. Draco just held her and rocked back and forward, not sure if he should say something or what.

"It's ok. He's gone now. Harry took the block off your powers. Everyone else left, but because my magic is like yours, I stayed to keep you safe," Draco told her.

"You wanted to keep me safe?" Justine asked, her voice somehow reminded him of a drowning swimmer clutching anything that could keep her afloat. "You cared?"

"Of course I cared. I never stopped caring. I just used to mask that with hate … I'm sorry," Draco told her with complete honesty, still rocking her gently. Justine smiled slightly, the tears still running down her cheeks.

"I didn't, you know that right? I didn't do what … what you thought I did in fifth year … I wouldn't – especially not with _Kris_," Justine told him.

"You seem to like him," Draco offered.

"Kris's my brother," Justine replied. "In everything but blood."

"OK then," Draco said quietly, believing her completely. "So what now?"

Justine wiped the tears from her cheeks. "I still want my mum," she said, and tears began streaking down her cheeks again. Draco handed her a handkerchief from his pocket.

"Is your mum here?" he asked.

"She's with Severus," Justine replied, rubbing the cloth over her cheeks to scour away the tears. Draco calmly started running his fingers through her hair to help her clean up.

"You mean the woman in the blue dress?" Justine nodded, "We all thought that was his girlfriend!"

"Ew! No – she's his sister in law!" Justine exclaimed, and started laughing, hard and long, she tried to stop, but found she couldn't.

"I think you're a little hysterical," Draco remarked. "You should try to calm down before we leave the clearing – if your mum is at the party … do you really think it's a good idea to go back there? There's lots of people, what if your magic surges again?" he conjured a drink of water, and gave it to Justine, who tried to stop laughing long enough to take a sip, and suddenly burst into tears again.

"Do you really want to be laughing and crying when we go into that hall? Maybe we should just go to the boat, and I'll put you into bed and go and get your mother and bring her to you," Draco suggested, and suddenly found himself almost knocked over as Justine wrapped her arms around him.

"You can't leave me!" she said desperately.

"So how are we going to do this?" Draco asked, smiling a little.

"You're gonna knock me up on cheering charms – they got me through the first half of the evenings and they'll bloody well get me through the last of it," Justine informed him brightly.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Yes. And you are going to stay with me all evening, just in case something happens."

* * *

Ten minutes later they walked together into the Great Hall. Draco had charmed all the grime of Justine's dress, and she was restored to her former glory, and they looked around to see if they could spot anyone that Justine would feel comfortable with. Over on the far side of the Hall, the three Kallaix boys who had gone to the clearing, plus Mark, were standing around together looking mightily pleased with themselves. 

Greg, Severus and Julia were standing together in a little knot, looking worried; they had picked up the basic gist when Kris had told Greg. When they spotted Justine and Draco heading straight for them, they hurried over to meet them – Severus looking very worried. Justine didn't even look at her uncle or the man she saw as the closest thing she had to a father in Australia. Without letting go of Draco's hand, she ran to her mother and threw her arms around her neck, leaning against her chest. Draco moved so that his arm wasn't in too much of an uncomfortable position and smiled slightly at Severus, then at Greg, looking somewhat nervous.

"Don't you think you should let go of the poor young man's hand?" Julia asked her daughter, who shook her head and clung to Draco's hand harder than ever, a look plastered on her face that reminded all present who knew him of a determined Calis that they let it go. Julia looked at Draco. "Is my daughter alright?" she demanded.

"I hope so, ma'am," Draco said.

Julia looked at Greg and Severus, "If you will excuse me – perhaps I should speak with her alone first..."

Neither of the men looked too happy with this suggestion, but both nodded in acquiescence with a mother's wishes and backed away. Julia led her daughter and Draco up to one of the top boxes and sat them both down, summoning a Fawn to provide with them soothing drinks. "Are you going to tell me what happened?" Julia asked her daughter.

"Not yet, in fact, I don't think you need to know the details, just believe me that I'm fine and all will be well " Justine replied, sitting very close her mother's side while not letting go of Draco. He couldn't help but to be a little proud of how well Justine was coping. He had a sudden memory of sitting in a darkened room with his mother, though it was morning outside, holding Narcissa while she cried and screamed like her heart was breaking. Lucius was a bastard, to say the least.

"Are you going to introduce me to the young man that you aren't letting go of?" Julia enquired suddenly.

"Oh. Mum, this is Draco, Draco this is mum." Justine said gesturing with her chin.

Julia's eyes darkened a little at the sound of Draco's name, but since her daughter seemed happy enough, she decided not to go into their past relationship right now, in fact, she had been watching the couple silently. A blind man could see something was between them. "I've heard a lot about you, Draco."

"I hope some of it was good," Draco remarked, and Julia was glad to see not a trace of cockiness, simply acceptance.

"It was once," Julia acknowledged with a small smile.

Draco nodded. He couldn't hope for more than that.

* * *

Ax watched Kris, Mark and Jeffery smiling smugly at each other, and had to admit that charming 'Asshole' across James' forehead and then locking him in the Hogwarts dungeons had been a rather good idea… and then Peeves taking him on as his own personal torment toy… but it wasn't good enough. Kris and Jeffery had both gotten their turns to hurt the little bastard, but he hadn't. Damn them … 

Looking around, Ax spotted Severus and Greg looking a little worried and looking up at one of the boxes. He followed their gaze and saw Draco, Justine and Julia sitting together – so, Draco had been forgiven then. That was probably a good thing … but if he hurt Justine now, Ax wouldn't be stopping at marring his face – he'd chop out the little bastards black heart. But everyone deserved a second chance, apparently.

But Draco wasn't the main problem now – James was. Ax looked back at Severus and Greg, and a cold smile played at his lips. Yes, that would be perfect. Ax slipped away from his present company and headed towards the two adults. "Ax, hello!" Greg said, trying to sound jolly, but the note of anger in his voice was easy to find.

Just as he was about to answer, Jean Wadsworth approached them as well. "Is something wrong?"

"James tried to rape Justine," Ax saw no reason to blunt his words.

Both the men's faces darkened and Ax knew his words had had the desired effect. Kris may have given them a gist of the events, but his choice of words had more… impact. _He _couldn't hurt James now, but these two definitely could.

"What did Kris do to him?" Mrs. Wadsworth asked, voice utterly calm, but Ax knew that tone – she was so angry now that she was calm. That was scary. The last time she had spoken like that, three people had been expelled from Kallaix.

"Him and Jeffery beat James up," Ax replied with a shrug. "Miss, remember – this doesn't come under your jurisdiction. The act was only _attempted_ and it didn't happen within the school grounds at Kallaix. The student trial will be held tomorrow, I imagine, and we will decide the outcome. Rest assured, we won't go easy on him."

"Where is James?" Severus asked.

"Locked in the dungeon's with _asshole_ written across his forehead. It won't be coming off any time soon either, Peeves is having some fun." Ax smirked. Severus and Greg looked at one another and smiled.

"Excuse us," they said simultaneously and walked away. Ax was somewhat intimidated. "I wouldn't want to be James right now."

* * *

Justine had allowed herself to be removed from her mother, and Julia was on the dance floor with Remus, both laughing loudly at some memory. Draco thanked his new parent at that moment, even Draco could see that Julia needed to be calmed, and as Severus and Greg were busy, and Remus had known Justine's father and mother while she was pregnant, he was a great option. Julia would be fine, the men would have retribution, they would be fine. The Kalliax'ians would get theirs tomorrow at dawn. 

But Justine still refused to let go of Draco, not that he had asked, and now they were slow dancing on the dance floor, her leaning calmly against his chest, utterly exhausted but refusing to leave the party until it was over, in true Australian style.

As the dance finished, and they headed away from drinks, in the hopes of this managing to wake Justine up a little more, a miniature cannon ball shot into Justine, wrapping very human arms around her waist and snuggling in against her back. "Tanya?" Justine asked, trying to free herself before she choked to death.

There was an incoherent mumble against Justine's back, which she took as a confirmation. "What are you doing?"

"Ax told me about James," Tanya mumbled into Justine's back. "'M sorry."

"Why are _you_ sorry?" Draco enquired. "You certainly didn't coerce James into doing what he did."

"But I wasn't there," Tanya said.

"There were enough people there," Justine assured Tanya, "So I was _fine_, as soon as they arrived, which was right in time."

"OK," Tanya said, and let go of Justine, who turned to face her. There was a strange expression on Tanya's face, one that was both worried and surprisingly vacant.

"Are you OK?" Justine asked her.

"Oh, I'm fine," Tanya replied, a very dreamy smile wandering over her face. Without another word, she wandered off, the dreamy smile still on her lips.

"What was _that_ about?" Draco wondered.

"No idea …" Justine muttered, looking after Tanya.

* * *

Ax stood on the balcony looking after Tanya as she wandered into the hall, feeling utterly confused. He watched as she spotted Justine and raced over to hug her, then as she wandered off again, that dreamy smile back on her face. He shook his head slightly – every time he thought he was getting somewhere with understanding women, one of them would come along and do something like this. 

He had found her after Severus and Greg had gone off towards the dungeons, and had thought that she really ought to know what happened with James – there would be a trial in the morning, and rather than letter her stay behind the times, he had explained what had gone on in the clearing not all that long before.

Tanya had lost it completely, practically crying with fury, her entire body quivering with fury at what had occurred. She had been ranting and raging for some time, while Ax tried to calm her down, and ultimately failed. On impulse, and since nothing else was working, he leant in and kissed her gently.

It did have the desired effect – she calmed down very quickly. In fact, she completely froze, her entire body seemed to stop moving, he wasn't even sure if she was still breathing. She didn't kiss him back, but she didn't push him away. He pulled back, and she didn't move, so he kissed her again. Kissing her seemed different to kissing any one else he had kissed, but he wasn't sure why.

Suddenly Tanya seemed to recover from being frozen, and she pushed him gently away. Ax backed off quickly, hoping he hadn't scared her or something. But Tanya was wearing a very dreamy smile, and when he stepped away, she had turned and wandered off in a daze.

Ax shook his head as he watched Tanya continue to wander through the Great Hall, still with that dreamy smile. He certainly wasn't used to girls just turning and wandering off after he'd kissed them … or at least, not without some indication that they had enjoyed kissing and would like it to continue.

One of the Hogwarts students – or possibly Saul – would have undoubtedly spiked the drinks by now, and Tanya was heading straight for the drinks table, seemingly utterly unaware that this would have happened. Ax shook his head – she hadn't come to nearly enough of the Wentworth parties to realise that spiking occurred somewhere around eleven at night. With a sigh, Ax headed off to make sure she didn't drink the spiked stuff.

* * *

By the time the ball started to break up, they had made it quite a few hours into the morning, and everyone was staggering around, drunk with the desire to sleep. Ax and Tanya were being careful to avoid each other, neither of them sure what was going to happen next, or sure exactly what they wanted out of the relationship that _might_ be able to develop … 

Draco was the only non-Kallaixian who was coming with them, because Justine had still not let go of him. No one who didn't know what had gone on between Justine and James seemed to have even noticed his absence. A short time before they reached the boat, Justine's grip on Draco tightened, and then she fainted.

Draco half turned and caught her, lifting her into his arms and continuing walking down the wharf and onto the cruiser. Kris, who was directing all of the new students to their beds for the night looked at Justine and Draco, then smiled slightly and gave Draco some directions.

"Which room would that be?" Draco asked.

Kris smiled faintly as he replied, "Justine's. See you in the morning, the trial is set for sunrise."

"You trust me in her room all night with her in a state like this?" Draco enquired in surprise. He had seen Kris's over-protectiveness in action on several occasions now, and he was shocked – to say the least – that Kris would let _him_ anywhere near Justine, particularly after what had occurred earlier.

"She trusts you," Kris told Draco, "That's enough for me. Now move along – you're blocking the gang-plank!"

Draco carried Justine to the room he had been given directions to and lay her down on the bed. Her grip on his hand didn't loosen, so, with some trepidation, he sat down beside her, hoping that she would react badly when she woke up in the morning. His mind was still alive with a wash of happy memories of his former relationship with Justine, memories that he had deliberately put out of his mind in the years passed. He leant one elbow on his knee and watched her sleep, and then decided that sleeping in that dress, although one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen, was not a good idea…

Draco stood and wandered around her room, tracing a hand down the side of the black gown she had worn to the Hunt Feast. Damn, he wondered if he could get her back into this now he could hold her, the night of the Hunt feast all he had wanted to do, as much as he had hated himself for it, was sweep her into his arms and dance with her, kiss her, be with her…

Then he saw her dressing table and smiled - on it lay her head girl badge for Kallaix, next to a toiletry bag, make up kit and some other girly things. He picked some of them up and looked them over, smiling as he encountered a satiny caramel coloured bra tossed haphazardly across the back of a chair. He saw some sheet music with runes and spells spread across a bench and decided that was her sorcery notes from the songs they had performed earlier that evening. He was reading through one of the pages of the song that he liked to think of as his, when Justine rolling over caused his attention to be drawn back to the girl herself. He walked over and gently lifted her into his arms, undoing the halter behind her neck, careful to hold the dress in place, then pulled a sweater from a nearby chair that was large enough to fit her as a night gown over her head, slipping her arms in place and down around her hips before pulling the gown off. Then he removed her jewellery and shoes, gently stroking that satiny skin of the nape of her neck and the arch of her foot. Rather proud of himself he charmed off all her makeup and slid her into the cool sheets, removed his jacket, tie and shoes, sliding in next to her and taking her gently in his arms.

Draco fell into a light, peaceful sleep …

He woke again as the watery light of pre-dawn seeped through the window in Justine's birth on the cruiser. He had half-woken periodically through the last few hours, if she moved or made noises, worried she would have nightmares. But now she was peacefully lying in his arms, her hair in the pillow behind her and her cheek resting on his arm, facing him. He reached out and flicked a piece of her hair off her face gently.

Justine stirred as she felt his finger lightly brush across her face, and her eyes flickered open. She looked at Draco, for a moment forgetting the events of the night before and starting in surprise, then, when he gently lay his hand over hers, she remembered, and turned against his chest, not crying, but obviously seeking his support. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly.

Not really caring how he came to be in her bed, but glad Draco was there, Justine sighed, her mind was racing at a thousand thoughts a minute, the events of the night before and their consequences today were at the forefront. The trial was to be held at an hour past sunup, which meant that she would have to relive the whole ordeal... God why did Kallaix have to have this sort of Judicial System.

"Draco?" she asked tentatively.

"I'm here," he said, holding on to her tightly. "I'll be here for as long as you need me."

"Really?" Justine looked up at him, entirely confused about the entire situation, and what the hell she should do next.

"Really," Draco assured her.

Justine smiled and reached up trace a finger along his jaw line, along Ax's scar, then looked up at him. "Does this mean we're friends again?"

Justine's question threw Draco somewhat, how to answer that? "Yes, I think we are..."

Justine seemed to take it for whatever value it possessed, because she closed her eyes, snuggled her head deeper into his arm and closer her eye's. Draco felt peace like he hadn't for years, just laying there holding her, and realised that Justine was right. For the last few years all he had focused on was the passion and love that he had lost, when one of the greatest things in all that he had lost had been her friendship.

He drifted to sleep.

* * *

"Where are they?" Tegan wondered, pacing up and down the library on the cruiser. She, along with the rest of the Kallaix Court were standing around, waiting for Justine and Draco to appear. 

James wasn't present yet either, but three members of the football team had gone to find him and fetch him from the dungeons ... no one was too sure where Justine was, however.

Suddenly, the door opened and Justine strolled onto the deck, leaning against Draco Malfoy's side, his arm around her waist, and holding her hand, both of their hands resting on Justine's hip. She looked remarkably relaxed after what had happened the night before.

Tanya was standing in one corner of the room, staying out of the way because she was too emotional and if she started speaking, she wouldn't be able to stop ...

Justine let Draco lead her towards a chair between himself and Harry, who had arrived a while ago, and had been chatting to Kris until now, and before she sat, Kris gave her a huge bear hug, which made her smile a little.

She was wearing a white tee shirt and jeans, as she looked around, Tanya noticed every one of the Australians not on the panel give her looks of support. Tanya leant her own by shooting her a bright smile. Tegan walked over behind her, squeezing her shoulder.

Tanya let her support show in the smile, and hoped Justine would understand that she didn't dare say anything just yet.

Suddenly the door opened and James was frogmarched into the room by the football players and forced into a seat. The moment she saw him, Tanya's eyes narrowed, and she had to force herself to stay in one position and not run over and slap the idiot.

Tegan didn't seem to feel any such restraint, and the second that she saw James, she gave a wolfish growl and launched herself at him, her eyes narrowed, teeth bared in intense dislike. For a moment her wolf nature took over, and she could only think that this male had harmed one of the females in her pack. Although Justine was the Alpha-female of the human pack, Tegan was the protector, and in the wolf's mind, being the protector meant that she had to destroy the thing which had come to attack her pack.

She managed to almost get to him before Saul appeared in front of her and Kris grabbed her by the arm.

"Tegan, you'll make this worse, take your revenge later, but get off the boat for now," Kris said quite calmly, dragging her backwards as James cowered behind a footballer.

Tegan glared at him one last time and snarled as she stomped off, Saul following to make sure she was ok.

Kris composed himself and returned to his role as head boy of the school, a role Tanya had only ever seen him fall into a few times, but she had to admit, when he did, she could tell why he was a Steelwell. An aura of calm power surrounded him as he; Ax and Jeffery climbed into the pulpit and gestured for everyone to take their places.

Jeffery began the proceedings. "You will be judged by Kris, as head boy, Alexander and I. The hearing will start immediately after we take our places, then you will appoint a speaker, who will, in an unbiased way, argue your case. You have been witnessed committing a crime illegal, heinous and despicable. You actions not only disgust your fellow school mates, but also severely harmed the well being of our Head Girl. Your actions will be now Judged…"

"She led me on!" James cut in before Jeffery could say anything else.

"You will be silent until instructed otherwise," Kris interrupted harshly. "You are accused of attempting to rape another student who has made it clear that she is disinterested in you. You are further accused of acting violently towards this young woman prior to the attempted rape. These are not the actions of an innocent man, they are in fact punishable by 'out of school' charters in the School Law. I warn you, as I over see these proceedings, if you push me, I will send for the authorities." His face was a mask of fury before his unemotional one fell deftly into place.

Ax, who had been staring down his nose at James took over at this point. Tanya could see in his face, though she wasn't sure others could because it was drawn into an unemotional mask, under the surface he was seething. "You are not to speak unless given leave to, or, as Kris has instructed I may do, I will hold you contempt of this court and pass you onto legal authorities. The Aurors would love this, I'm sure." He looked around the room. "James, you may now pick your speaker, and may I advise you to choose well, for punishment is certain in this crime"

James suddenly seemed to realise he wasn't going to get out of this by playing the poor victim and stood straight, wincing only a little and holding his side, where, little be known to the rest of the group, Severus Snape had cursed him the night before. He grinned maliciously up at the heads table and then looked around the room, finally settling his gaze on Isaac.

He sneered and said in a dramatic voice "I call sixth year prefect Isaac Thorpe-Townsend to speak for me if he will."

Isaac looked angry for a moment, the sheer audacity of James calling him was astounding. It was well known that Isaac was fair and a good speaker in trails, almost as good as Jeffery had been in sixth and fifth years. Then, his choice made, he stood, walking to the bar. "I accept the right to speak on behalf of my schoolmate, James, although I do so out of obligation, not respect."

Ax grinned and nodded. "Duly noted Isaac, as I know you to be familiar with the case you may begin when you are ready."

Isaac took a moment and turned and said in a clear voice. "Fellow school mates. Not a single person here can say they have never made a mistake when judging what another person was thinking. James has expressed that he honestly thought that there was something special and worth pursuing between himself and his accuser, Justine Snape. Thus I ask first that she take the stand."

Justine stood and walked calmly to a spot near where the three judges sat, where all in the room could see her clearly, and Tanya had to admit that in positioning himself where he had, Harry had indeed been clever. Both he and Draco were directly in front of her.

Tanya could see that her eyes were trained steadily on Isaac though, remarkably calm. Tanya knew that Justine just couldn't handle negative emotion, though right now she looked serene.

Isaac began. "Justine, did you, by meaning or by action, lead James to believe that you could be anything other than plutonic friends, since his arrival from Kallaix academy for the Hunt?"

Justine calmly stated, "No, on more than one occasion I stated as such to him."

Isaac had a small smile playing around his mouth now. "But do you think that James believed that there would be more?"

Justine nodded slowly, "I think that in his own twisted way James saw me as some sort of trophy, that he honestly thought that if we were together he would have it all."

James, sitting on the other side of the room, muttered contemptuously, "We would have. We would have ruled Kallaix this year but your ruined it all!"

Ax shut him up simply by clearing his throat and looking angry, then gestured for Isaac to continue.

"Justine," Isaac said, "I want you to tell me about the night in question, last night, and tell us exactly what happened."

She nodded slowly and it was obvious she was choosing her words. "I received a message to meet someone, not James, in the clearing at midnight, and I decided to go, in an attempt to clear the air between us. I endured the ball under cheering charms because I was not well and made my way to the meeting place. When I arrived James made it evident to me that he had followed me, and he informed me that he was under the misconception that the sorcery we had performed had been a show for him."

Justine paused and looked at Draco. They hadn't yet discussed any of their feeling s or what had happened before the attack, and he was watching her with an intense expression. Tanya could see tears forming in her eyes now.

"When I told him the song I sang was for Draco Malfoy, he attacked. He, he um, slapped me," Justine looked at the ground and a tear fell from her eyes, quickly followed by a second. "Then when I tried to run he caught me and punched me hard in the stomach and then pushed me up against a tree by the neck. He was yelling at me all the time, but then he kissed me, it was rough. He said he could make me want him. He pulled up my dress and tried…."

She broke off. Her face had gone chalk white and her hand resting n the railing of the ship was visibly shaking.

"When… I stopped him he got angrier. He said that he would have me, and he threw me around a bit and then hit me on the head, I fell to the ground… he followed and was trying to… he punched me and then everything is blurry." Tears were falling down her cheeks but she still managed to look calm.

Isaac smiled at her gently and nodded and she went to sit down, Draco immediately gathering her up in his arms and she sniffed into his shirt front. Tanya stealthily made her way around the room, only half listening as she head Isaac go for a 'unstable state of mind' defence.

She edged up behind Justine and knelt down behind her chair, tapping Justine on the shoulder. "Psst"

Both Justine and Draco turned to see who it was and Draco smiled at her before facing the front again, letting Justine twist, his arm still around her, to face Tanya.

"What's the matter sweetheart?" Was Justine's immediate whispered response.

Tanya grinned wryly, "I came to ask what I can do for you, I just wanted to make sure you were happy."

Justine smiled and reached out to hold Tanya's hand. "I'm going to be ok, the boys will deal with this fairly and then we'll win the hunt ok?"

Tanya heaved a huge sigh and looked up to where a very serious Ax was watching proceedings. Justine followed her gaze and watched as Ax momentarily looked at Tanya, his gaze softening to a small smile before his attention was drawn away again.

A hush fell over the room. Harry watched the three judges descend to stand in front of James and make their decisions, each one having listened to the testimonies of the witnesses for the last forty-five minutes. Students had slowly woken up and filtered out to join the crowd on the deck for the last half hour, and now the deck was crowded with faces, all sitting or standing around to watch.

Justine was calm once more; sitting with Draco Malfoy, and many of the Kallaix girls were openly admiring Justine's ability to attract the hottest guys. Mark, Kris, and now Draco Malfoy: teen billionaire. Some girls got all the luck.

It was in fact, Kris who spoke first, stepping forward to stand before James with a sneer. "James, my Judgement is thus. You have behaved disgracefully here at Hogwarts, and when one considers that you are here as one of a lucky group chosen to attend this event as representatives of Kallaix Academy, I am left with no choice but to be entirely disgusted," Kris stepped closer to James, using his slightly taller hight to an advantage before continuing.

"Kallaix Academy represents utmost exclusivity and standards, and you have let the school down. You are on many of our schools sporting teams, where, as not only head boy, but also frequently captain, I hold supreme jurisdiction. Thus I decree that you shall be expelled from all teams, team games or events."

He stared James down as he saw James's eyes widen. It was common knowledge that James wanted to go on to join the pro football circuit, and being kicked off his school team for this incident would ruin all chance he had. James looked down in anguish and anger, shaking with rage, before Kris stepped past him, shoving him heavily with his shoulder as he passed, moving around the group to stand next to Justine, Harry and Draco.

Next Ax stepped forward with a small sadistic grin tilting up the corner of his mouth. "My judgement is thus – for your crimes against an innocent woman, I decree that you shall not be able to move within ten feet of her person without magical repulsion. I will cast the spell myself, right now."

Jeffery stepped forward to hand down his own verdict, "As a judge of the trial, I must agree with Kris, in that your actions while being an ambassador of Australia have been despicable. Kallaix is far too good for scum like you. Therefore, I decree that you are suspended for a month, and your enrolment at Kallaix will be appraised when you return, I suggest you use the time to assess yourself James, your current path which you are paving for yourself will only lead to personal ruination – I wouldn't care, but I don't like seeing so much potential going to such a colossal waste. Were you in any year but seventh, I would recommend expulsion. I am still uncertain as to whether or not such would be a bad idea, and will therefore delay my response for the moment. I further believe that, as your actions reflect so badly on our school, you will be removed from the position of ambassador and returned immediately to Australian soil, where you will pack your bag and leave the school. No appeal granted."

At that moment, Harry stepped forward, his face a mask of cold fury, "As a representative of the student body of Hogwarts, if I find you on our school grounds within the next hour, I will see to it that every student of Hogwarts knows that you are an affront to my eyesight, and that you are to dealt with harshly," with that, he turned and left the boat.

Draco watched his brother leave, then turned to face James, who was looking surprised at the fact that Hogwarts was taking a hand in his judgement, and then looked down briefly at Justine's hand, which was firmly clasped in his own, and spoke his own piece, "Where my brother speaks for the students, I speak with the authority of Hogwarts herself, and I add weight to my brothers words: if you are still here in an hour, I will ensure that you leave the grounds a dead man."

Then there was a brief commotion at the jetty, as Harry stalked back on to the boat, flanked by Malcolm Braddock and Leon, with the rest of DC and some of the regular DA members behind him, all with their wands drawn, obviously ready to act upon Harry's word. James paled, obviously not having believed that Harry had the intention of making good his threat.

"Leon and Malcolm will be sent with James to ensure that he is away from Hogwarts for good," Harry said, "I have informed them to use force if that is necessary in assuring that you do not return her. I have spoken with a Miss Wadsworth, the Headmistress of your school, and she has informed us as to where we may take him to remove him from our grounds."

Saul and Adam hurried forward, Kallaix's representatives for James' removal from the school. Ax, Kris and Jeffery, as the Judges, were not permitted to leave, and Ax merely cast the spell over James and Justine to prevent them from ever coming within several feet of one another until the spell was removed – and if Ax had anything to do with it, it never would

* * *

Justine sighed and watched as Harry and Draco spoke to the Aussie boys. She had been left in the care of Tanya and Tegan, who were flitting about making sure she was happy, while Alyson stood behind her, braiding her hair up for that day's hunt, making a small plaited bun at the nape of her neck after braiding two trails down the sides of her head. Jacque was getting sound equipment and such ready. 

Draco turned around with a dark look in his eyes and saw her watching the group of boys, his face melting into a handsome smile. Her heart jumped in a little flutter and she smiled back, impishly gesturing that the other girls were driving her mad. He grinned and wandered over deftly moving the girls out of the way with a quiet, "Ladies, excuse us…" to take her by the hand and lead her over to the side of the boat where the group of boys were chatting, then lifting her to sit on the side railing of the boat, leaning on it next to her with an arm around her waist.

"I'm serious though, he has forty eight minutes to get off the grounds." Harry was stating to Ax and Saul, who had just returned from delivering James to the Headmistress of Kallaix.

"Wandsworth said the minute we wanted to, she would personally take him home, so I sent her on her merry way. I'm sure he's gone and we don't have to worry about him again … well, you don't, anyway." Saul replied, "Man I'd love to be a fly on the wall during that journey!" they had a small chuckle at James's expense.

Kris meanwhile, was standing next to Justine, and he suddenly jerked as though he had been shoved from behind. Adam and Jeffery, up on the top deck, began to laugh. Kris turned to find McEwan was standing purring slightly, though wary of Draco, as she had met Harry before.

_Hello child, I stayed my anger for the last few days as I promised, and you too have delivered, Justine seems to be happy again. I thank thee for this, although the anger emanating from you this morning nearly made me rescind my oath._

Kris grinned and reached out far to scratch her eye ridges, "You did good Hun, and for the record, I hereby dub Draco as an Aussie, so he's cool to come on the boat like Harry, Sev and Ginny."

McEwan nodded her massive head and trilled a little at Justine, who obligingly turned to Draco. "This is the McEwan Dragon – McEwen, this is Draco Malfoy." Justine turned back to the conversation as the dragon turned back to converse with Kris.

_You failed to mention the other flame haired boy, Ronald…_

Kris nodded slowly. "Ron is not to be granted access to the boat, although he is not to be harmed, ok?" The dragon nodded again and went under the water.

Justine's eyes darkened a little, Harry could see, as he picked up the gist of the quiet conversation passing between Kris and the blue dragon. "Justine, can you tell me about the Australian dragons? I mean, how do you tap into the tame part of them, because all I see is wildness and draconic nature, which is the same as it is in British dragons, you seem to bring it almost to a human level."

Justine laughed a little and grinned. "Well they are most definitely not tamed; in fact, it would be entirely presumptions to even believe that the human level of relationships are higher than that of the dragon. But back when our school was founded with the help of these four species they shared something with us, and through trust and co-operation, over the years we have had higher and higher levels of oneness. My father went to Australia for that reason, he was in Australia studying the disk, and my mum was in seventh year, it's sort of pervy really." Justine giggled.

Draco thought for a moment before asking gently, "And they had a friend named Remus didn't they?"

Justine nodded. "He was my dad's colleague and friend, and I saw pictures of them. My mum stayed on at school after seventh year as a helper to the Sorcery prof. at that time, and I was the result. Mum found herself pregnant and her and Father were married, then before I was born, my dad died. I haven't had the chance to talk to Remus since I've been here though, I'm hoping he comes to see me, we did meet last night after all."

Harry nodded slowly, then brought the conversation back to a point that the explanation had only skipped over, "You said something about a disk? What's that? Remus certainly never mentioned it … then again, he never mentioned ever going to Australia either."

Kris and Ax looked at each other then back at the group. Kris spoke "Well, it is The Disk of the Dragon that gives our school its power and understanding with Dragons. It is believed to work as a medium between the higher figures of the school and its six dragons..."

* * *

Alyson walked off the boat after the trial with Saul and Adam, heading up to the castle for breakfast. She had, of course, told the others that they were leaving, but something in the back of her mind told her that she was worried, and was covering her back by accompanying the boys. 

She looked around the all as they entered the Great Hall, seeing that the Hufflepuff table, which had looked so empty with only the twenty visiting Kallaix students at it, looked well and truly packed this morning, most of the Kallaixians having had sat, and the Beauxbatons students covering the first half of the table.

She took a seat next to Isaac Thorpe-Townsend, grinning as she saw him attack a mountain of Wheat-bix with gusto and, as she was sitting at the far side of the table opposite Adam, she could see that Pansy and Daphne had just entered also. It struck her odd that Daphne wasn't wearing her riding uniform, surely as Hogwarts head Huntress, like Justine, she should be getting ready and covering maps etc…

Then she saw the look of pure malice that Daphne shot at three people sitting at the Table. Ginevra Weasley, Luna Lovegood and Colin Creevy were dressed in the Hogwarts gear. Oh dear. It seemed that the petition had been successful after all and Daphne had been kicked off the Hogwarts Team. Colin and Ginny were pouring over maps of the Acromantula-Forbidden forest and Luna had her eyes closed, waving a hand over the map, seeming to try and absorb the specs spiritually.

She smirked a little and went back to her breakfast, munching happily through a plate of honey-smothered toast and a cup of tea. The Hunt would be much more fun if they had worthy opponents, and it would be interesting to test the skills of the new Hogwarts riders, considering that Ginny was the only one who had been on the team from the beginning. Still, she thought that the group would work well together.

Forgetting her earlier sense of worry she excused herself when she was done to return to the ship alone, deciding that although she had spent a fair bit of time alone studying the map in preparation for today, she may as well refresh and be prepared, besides, she had yet to braid her own, or Tegans unruly hair and she wanted to put on her uniform.

Just as she was about to leave, she wondered if she should invite Leon to spend the event with them too, since he seemed to have enjoyed being in the tent with the Kallaix students at more than one event, and, feeling diplomatic she climbed the massive staircase in the entrance hall. She stepped off the top step ran straight into Daphne and Pansy.

"You think you can mess with us huh?" Was all she heard before a mighty blow to the back of her head knocked her out, and she had the vague sensation of falling...

"This time you went to far, Dumbledore had better expel you Pansy, or I'll make the rest of your life a living hell…" Alyson tried to open her eyes but the light hurt them badly. She thought it may be Ax she caught a glimpse of, the blonde hair, but the voice was all wrong. Why was she on the bloody stone floor?

She tried to push herself up and managed to open her eyes again and found herself drowning in a sea of green. She could feel his concern for her, it radiated off him like a warm blanket, soothing the ache in the back of Alyson's head, "Please Alyson, you're hurt badly and you need to stay down, I'm here to protect you." Was all Harry said, and she closed her eyes and calmed down somewhat, though the yelling was still buzzing in the back of her mind like a continuous motor. It was Draco, she realised, and he was yelling at Pansy and Daphne for her.

Then she felt a presence enter the room that made her cringe. Anger. Pure anger. Ax's anger.

* * *

Kris and Ax had decided a late breakfast would be good, because that way they could take up half the table and finish all the maple syrup without feeling guilty. Honestly, who wouldn't take up such an opportunity? They joked loudly and made their way up to the Great hall, but were surprised to see a large gathering in the entrance hall. 

Draco had Daphne and Pansy cornered back against the wall and was, well, really showing why he was known as the Prince of Slytherin. Then Ax looked down and flew across the room, to where Alyson lay at the bottom of the stairs in a small pool of silvery blood. Harry was sitting beside her careless of the unusual blood seeping through his clothes, stroking her brow and keeping her calm.

Ax strode over immediately, drawing his sword with one hand, and carefully picked up her arm and leant to check her heart rate, before looking up the stairs to where a little blood was spattered, and finally his eyes came to rest on the vase lying haphazardly across the top stair.

"Harry tell me what I think happened didn't happen," He heard Kris's voice behind him, and he looked up at Harry to try and confirm the story. All Harry could do was nod and glare at Daphne, before looking back to Alyson.

"We've send for Madam Pomfrey, she will be here any second… Draco seems to be dealing with those two quite nicely."

Kris stood and walked over to where Draco was holding out a hand that was glowing with a negative black energy, directing it at the now petulantly silent girls. Ax came to stand next to him, his entire being glowing and his eyes white, pupil less…

Kris just shook his head and quietly said. "Let me make this perfectly clear so that you don't misunderstand me. I'll use small words for your benefit. Point one - Alyson Deveréaux is the daughter of one of the most powerful Wizarding Lawyers in the Eastern Magisphere. Her father has offices all over America, though he is based in Sydney, and Alyson is his pride and joy. He will make you life hell when I tell him about this." At this Pansy screamed out,

"Lies, that cow is nothing, she has no power!"

Draco carefully and deliberately reached around into his backpack and extracted the clipping that had fallen from the album a few days earlier. "'The Aussie Brat Pack Reigns'… I would say, girls, that you're screwed." He handed over the article and smirked. Kris nodded and merrily continued in his calm but deadly tone. "Point two – Alyson is like a daughter to my father, the Australian Minister of Magic, and he will make your life hell when he hears about this. Point three – Alyson is Justine's best friend, Ax's honorary little sister, hell, pretty much all of Kallaix Academy is going to make you life hell. There is no hope for you now. And the beautiful thing…"

Draco smirked and looked at the girls, and they both had sudden insight as to why he was in Slytherin. "I don't have to lift a finger and I will get to see your worlds fall apart, you screwed up bitches… have a nice life, or what's left of it…" And seeing that he had successfully terrified the girls he turned to where Pomfrey was quickly and smoothly healing lesions to stop Alyson's bleeding. Pomfrey began firing instructions at Kris.

Ax just stood dead still, his feet planted and sword arm extended to the girls so the blade lay parallel to their throats. "Let me just say, you detestable specks of human existence, that if I see you so much as BREATH wrong for the rest of this fucking conference, I will be there, and you will regret it."

Harry was holding her hand as Pomfrey woke her up. "Are you ok Alyson?" He asked her, watching her intently.

Alyson nodded a little woozy and let Ax swing her arm over his shoulder and pick her up gently. "Thank you Harry…"

* * *

Tanya stomped into the preparation tent feeling rather annoyed. With Alyson hurt, she had been pulled in to take her place as an archer, following Justine's newest grand 'plan', and when she had just come into the riders preparation area, the Hogwarts team had descended upon her and tried to drag her off _again_, having once more mistaken her for Ginny Weasley. 

She was starting to get very annoyed about this, and since it wouldn't do to be mistaken for Ginny during the Hunt, she had decided that she would simply have to do something that would make her easily distinguishable from Ginny – her hair had to be changed. She only had two options, as far as she could see, and those were to either cut it or colour it. And there was no way that she was going to cut off the long red locks that were her most favoured physical attribute.

That meant she would have to colour it – this option was not nearly so difficult to contemplate, because tomorrow was the last day of the Unicorn Hunt, and she would be able to change her hair back to it's proper colour on the boat before they reached Kallaix tomorrow afternoon.

After a few moments of careful consideration, she decided on brunette – it would be easy to tell her apart from Ginny and it wouldn't be _too _much of a drastic change for her to deal with. Brunette it was.

Of course, she didn't have the slightest idea how one might actually use a hair colouring charm. She had read about them on occasion, but never really considered them, because she loved her hair just the colour that it was. Now she found herself needing to use one, without Justine around to run to for help. Justine, after all, had used a colouring charm practically every day of her life, and was a master of such things.

Well, it couldn't be _that _hard …

* * *

Justine and Tegan were standing at the starting lines with Alyson in unicorn form, her horn charmed to invisibility – the charm wouldn't hold for long, but hopefully it would hold for long enough – and Anubis was standing near by with Loki. As per the plan, Isis had been directed to wait for them in the tree line. 

Now they were standing worrying about where Tanya might have got to. There was only a couple of minutes until they had to mount up and head for the starting line, and unless Tanya got herself over here _very_ soon, there was going to be trouble. Just as the call went out for the riders to mount up, a small, slim figure with long _very_ blonde hair flying behind her came _racing_ into the area and leapt gymnastically up onto the back of the white horse, a very well disguised Alyson, muttering something about colouring charms, Justine and Tegan having already mounted with much more decorum.

As the horn sounded, calling the riders to begin to make their way to the starting line, which also meant that it was time to go over all of the equipment one last time – they had approximately five minutes before it was time to start. "_What_ did you do to your hair?" Justine demanded.

"I got sick of being mistaken for Ginny," Tanya muttered, tugging a helmet on over her now white-blonde hair.

"So you changed to Alyson?"

"I was aiming for brunette," Tanya replied.

"Oh, so a more me and Tegan look," Justine concluded.

"Dammit, I just want to be me … but with Ginny around that's become annoyingly difficult."

Tegan and Justine both just laughed. "I'll fix your hair after the hunt," Justine told Tanya, "We don't have time right now – sound check has to be done for starters," she handed both Tegan and Tanya their earpieces and microphones. Justine and Tegan slipped theirs on with the ease of practice, but Tanya fiddled with hers a lot, not sure if it was sitting right. Finally Justine leaned over and adjusted it for her.

"_Testing, one two,_" Jacque's voice came through.

"Uh, testing, testing," Tanya said, which caused her two companions to burst into laughter, before Justine started singing _'Home on the Range_' rather loudly.

"_Check,_" Jacque sighed.

As they directed the horses towards the starting line, Tanya kept her head down, checking her bow by stringing it and then unstringing it, before stringing it again, then checking all of her arrows, nocking each of them, one by one, just in case. She didn't need to check the saddle and bridle over because they she felt perfectly comfortable.

Looking down at her, anyone could easily mistake her for Alyson, carefully going over everything while her companions joked around – the Lady making sure that everything was perfect and ready for use. Justine was joking with Jacque about the selection of music, while Tegan was bitching quietly about what she was going to do to Daphne when they saw her the next time.

Over the loud speakers, the commentator remarked that the Kallaix students had registered a change in line up, due to the injury of one of their players, but that the change seemed to have been re-changed, and Alyson was back and recovered from some injury.

Music was blasting already from the sound pieces, deafening them to the voice while they all adjusted the sound levels so that they would be comfortable during the Hunt. Tanya turned her sound right down, so the words were only just distinguishable from the mutter in her ear.

Justine seemed to have turned her music right up and was bopping along to it, acting completely distracted and unproffesional, and Tegan had hers down low, her enhanced hearing not needing the sound to be particularly loud for her to hear it clearly. Then they were at the starting line and Jacque turned the music off until the event actually started.

Tanya was the only one who was paying much attention as they were informed the rules once more before the event began, just so that there could be no excuse for anyone to break them, after this, everyone was sent to the starting line. The Head Huntress – For Kallaix, this was Justine – was positioned with her horse's hooves on the line, with the other two riders in triangular formation behind her.

In the Hogwarts line-up, Colin had taken Daphne's place as the third rider – when the Kallaix students had been given the petition, they'd all signed it, then Justine had shown it to Greg, who had taken it to all of the Minister's and convinced them to sign as well, which they had all done. When presented with the petition, Daphne had had no choice but to step down as Head Huntress. Ginny had taken this position, with Luna and Colin at her back. They were perhaps not the best team of riders that could be found, having had never riden before, but they could work well together, and so hopefully they would do well.

The horn sounded, signalling that the event could begin. Tanya smiled happily – this was something she could do that would enable her to forget about Ax. All last night her thoughts had been almost dead, overwhelmed by the fact that Ax had … she stopped her thoughts there. She had yet to admit that he had done _anything_. She didn't know what she was thinking about.

Justine lead everyone straight for the tree line, and the moment they were through the trees, they all came to a stop, and Justine whistled, Anubis gave a soft sound of calling, and Tanya jumped down from Alyson's back and started quickly taking off the saddle and bridle. Alyson changed back to human form as Isis came out of the trees, touched her head against Anubis's, then trotted over to Alyson and Tanya, who quickly put the tack on her instead.

The moment Isis was ready, Tanya shrugged out of the vest she was wearing. It had a red X across the front of it and marked her as the target – in this event the objective was to try and take out all of the targets from the other teams, and to protect their own.

Each person in the team was armed with a set of arrows and their bows. Since it was obviously impossible to attack anyone with pointed arrows, these arrows were blunt and tipped with bunches of fabric that would activate a spell upon hitting a target. The first two times your target got hit, the screens in the control room would flash, and you would lose points. On the third time, the person would be knocked unconscious and the team would be disqualified. The one problem was that one team could not hit an opposition more than once – three arrows from _different_ schools had to hit the target for disqualification.

"Nice hair," Alyson said with a nod, shrugging into the vest and then shifting form to that of a unicorn. Tanya lifted up one of her white-blonde locks and smiled faintly at the unicorn in front of her.

She saluted cheekily, "Thanks," then turned and bounded smoothly up onto Isis's back. Justine nodded to her, she nodded back, and the three of them set off. Alyson let out a soft call, looking for a unicorn herd to hang out with until it was time for her to cross the finish line with the group, most likely unharmed.

Justine led the team out a roaring gallop, trying to catch up with the other teams. She muttered instructions to Jacque, who conveyed the recording to the other two girls – that way they could converse as quietly as possible and still get instructions across.

"_Well, now that Alyson is safe, you girls are going to head out and find some other teams to attack. We've already decided to leave Hogwarts for a little while yet … give them a chance – what with all the changes in line up, they're gonna need help. So, we're looking for Thundreds - they're our biggest threat._"

It was a good thing that they had Llysanyins to ride – they had a whole lot more stamina than any other breed of horse, as well, they had intelligence that was more than that of most other non-human beings. The horses themselves watched out for dangers and avoided them, as well as knowing that they were looking for other horses.

"_You have to change course – head due north for about twenty metres,"_ Jacque instructed them suddenly, "_You're headed for a patch of swamp._"

Apart from occasional comments like this from Jacque, the group was travelling in relative silence, and whenever Jacque wasn't speaking to them, music was coming through in their ears instead. Tegan, like the horses, was keeping a careful ear and nose out for any approaching danger or other teams.

Even so, it was some time before they came across anyone, because they had been waylaid by changing mounts. The first team they came across was Durmstrang – Kallaix came up from behind. Durmstrang thought that everyone was ahead of them by now, and were not defending the rear. They were waiting for the first team to come back, so they could take people out as they headed for the finish line.

Justine raised her bow, mouthing, _"Mine_", and shooting their target straight in the back, then leading her team straight for the Durmstrang threesome, who were half turned, surprised by the sudden appearance of the Kallaix team from behind him. Just before they face to face, Justine threw a sharp left and the Kallaix team thundered passed and were gone into the trees before Durmstrang could completely figure out what had just happened.

The three of them exchanged a smile and continued on their way, Anubis and the mares carrying them to safety. Justine seemed extremely happy, back in complete form since the night before, and this had perked up the mood of the entire crew.

"Jacque sweetie darling sugar bunch," she cooed into her mike.

"_Yeah, I'm here Justine,"_ came the immediate response.

"Is my mother in the Kallaix tent, or can you see her?" Justine asked, "If no, can you please go send Kris or Saul to bring her over. I need to talk to her for a second."

"_I'm on it,"_ came the faint sound of Saul's voice in the background, Justine was just as glad that Saul was with Jacque again, because that meant that one person could leave the tent if necessary, and Jacque would always be there to help them out – Saul was cool, but he wasn't the best.

Justine smiled just as Tegan called for silence again, and using her werewolf hearing, picked up a riding group, some distance ahead, still out of normal sound range. She held up two fingers, and then waved them in a sort of nor-easterly direction. Justine quickly signed back for sound recognition, and Tegan gestured that they were trotting towards the goal, not hurrying, and from their footfall, weren't the Thundreds, who on their Arabians would be easily distinguishable.

Justine nodded and Tanya gestured that she would flank the team, Tegan claiming the shot at the chosen target. Justine nodded and they set off at a sudden, powerful and very fast gallop. They thundered up behind the team, who turned out to be the group from Villefort, and Tegan pulled her bow, grinning wolfishly, striking the girl marked with the X in the side as she turned to flee.

Justine suddenly pulled two arrows and shot them at once, both hitting the head rider, who was forced back and away as Justine pulled again, covering Tegan's back and riding out. Tanya flipped out of her saddle and sat on the other side of the horse, resting on her stirrup foot, balancing against Isis's side as she shot at the other defensive rider. Covering her team as they left, then using the Llysanyins speed to get away unscathed, she laughed loudly.

The group zigzagged for the next few minutes back and forth across the forest, shaking off any pursuit. Justine, who was watching the environ's closely, lead them into a shallow brook, and they walked down stream, the running water not only hiding their track's, but also masking most of their sound. Tegan hit the switch on the side of her head piece to signal the end of the silence and Jacque's voice cut through.

"_Hey all, did you mark a target?"_

Tegan let out a short laugh. "Grendwell, check!"

Justine could almost hear Jacque's grin as she said, _"Sweet, oh yeah, Julia's here to speak to you . I'll put her on."_

The microphone went quiet for a moment then Julia's musical voice came through. _"Justine darling! Are you winning? Nothing's wrong is it?"_

Justine smiled smugly. "Mum, of course I'm winning! I just wanted to ask you about a rumour I heard. Is it true, that you and Narcissa Malfoy had a punch up yesterday?"

Justine heard Kris in the background with his dad begin catcalling and teasing Julia as she obviously blushed. _"Justine, let's discuss this when you get in shall we, I uh, had a disagreement with Miss Lupin yes, but it wasn't what your thinking."_

Justine grinned, "Did you kick her ass mum, tell me please? I bet you'd rock in a punch up!"

"_It was a slap fight, actually,"_ Julia said loftily, and Justine broke out in delighted laughter.

"_Justine, I would appreciate it if you would get your mind back on task and win the event, this is none of your business,"_ Severus's voice cut across the line.

"Hey Sevie!" Justine grinned

"_Nah, it's me again. Get back to work,"_ Jacque started the music again and the team moved off. Justine sighed, figuring that two adults would have by now left the tent, and concentrated on the job again. She'd have to remember to ask her mother about it later.

* * *

"Hey Sevie," Saul said innocently, in parody of Justine, as Severus was about to leave the tent with Julia. 

Without warning, and quite scaring everyone in the place Severus Snape lost his mighty temper. The entire atmosphere inside the tent darkened as he turned to Saul.

"Saul, while I have left the absurd nickname alone with Justine I will not tolerate it from you. From now on you will refer to me as Professor Snape or I will, as you are Justine's guest, accept Severus, as my name was given me, and as for the rest of you, if you cannot scrape together an abysmal brain cell and learn how to use the pronunciation my name, I don't understand why you would address me at all,"

His face was dark and stormy and every student in the place cringed, before Julia took his hand and led him from the tent. Greg having made his excuses and returned to the VIP room.

Kris broke the silence, "Damn, from what I see Justine's temper is just a smidgen of what the rest of her bloody family can do. She so got that from her Dad's side of her family."

Saul, who had moved closer to Ax, quite terrified when Severus had started yelling, quietly asked "What exactly do we know about her father?" Ax, who had been in Gryffindor for several years, understood completely how he felt, but years had passed since his first ever Potions lesson, and he was no longer scared of Severus's temper. It wasn't like he had been on the receiving end of it often, after all.

Kris looked at him. "I probably know as much as Justine, and it's not much. He was in Gryffindor, quite a few years younger than Severus, but with the same serious side. His name was Calis; Julia loved him, and he died before Justine was born, that's about all I know. I think that's all Justine knows."

"He was a great guy, looked a lot like Severus, but with softer lines and his mothers nose and hair, which I used to teasingly tell him was a blessing," came the voice of a man Sauls didn't recognise. He was of medium height with brown hair and the look of someone who recently took to looking after himself. By his side was none other than a shocked Draco Malfoy, who was staring at the man.

"I knew him when I taught at Kallaix with him, he was a great guy, a lot like Justine, as far as I can see. Passionate about his friends, quick to defend, short tempered and entirely too lovable. His favourite colour was green, and his eyes were exactly like hers. I don't know what else to tell you," the man shrugged slightly.

Ax, who seemed to know the man, quietly responded, "Thank you Professor Lupin, that means a lot to us…"

"It would mean more to Justine," Kris interrupted. "If you know all this, why haven't you told her? She's the one who _really_ deserves to be hearing it!"

The man smiled, "In that case, I shall make a point of speaking to her after the Hunt. You are quite right she deserves to know as much as possible about her father – he was, as I said, a great man. Had I been aware that she knew so little, I would have come forward before now," with that he turned and moved away, leaving behind a tent full of very shocked Australians, and Draco.

"I came to see how well Justine is doing," Draco said firmly, smiling a little, determined not to concentrate on his step-fathers sudden announcement.

Saul bounced over and grinned, "She's kicking ass as usual. Wanna say hello? But bear in mind that we can't let you leave after this, in case you go and tell one of our rivals, since you _are_ from Hogwarts."

Draco grinned and wandered over to where Jacque handed him a headset. He put it on and, pressing the button she indicated, buzzed only Justine's headset. Jacque warned him she may not answer for a moment if she was busy, and after a moment he supposed she must be in the hunt, and he was about to put down the head set when Justine's happy voice filled the tent.

"_AHH YEAH! We just took down Beauxbatons something chronic, what's the matter sweetheart."_

Draco grinned and turned his back on everyone dropped his voice. "Well, it's nice to be greeted in such a manner Miss Snape, although I was disappointed to not be given the opportunity to see you off."

Draco could tell she was surprised to hear his voice although she quipped back, _"Well, Mr Malfoy, as I recall, you were up at the castle changing your clothing for the event, I had to be at the starting line to register my team. Its hardly my fault your so podantic about your appearance"_

Draco smiled, "How are you doing? Are you ok?"

Justine paused and responded. "_Draco, I'm good at this, no need to worry ok. I'm kicking ass!"_

"Mr. Thorpe-Townsend has already informed me of this, in the same words, as I recall. Will I see you this afternoon?" He inquired coolly, hoping that Justine wouldn't pick up the… need, in his voice.

"_I think me and Saul will be busy, but we should be able to find some time I think, hang on, CODE RED!"_

The line went dead and Jacque calmly explained that they had encountered another team, gesturing for Draco to go sit with the boys while she checked out the situation.

Draco turned and looked over to where Kris and the others were lounging on chairs and tables laughing and joking and then back at Jacque, unsure whether she was kidding.

"Draco, come pull up a chair and tell us about the strip joint down in Hogsmeade!" Saul suddenly bellowed, spotting Draco's unease and trying to convey that he should be at ease.

Draco walked a little closer and grinned, "How do you know about Wand Shakers?"

Saul nearly fell off his chair. "Your telling me there really is one?"

Draco pulled up a seat as Kris handed him a cold Aussie beer and the group proceeded to laugh at Saul, before Draco stunned the group with a surprisingly detailed description of the strip joint. When all of them were _thoroughly_ freaked out, he admitted that, in fact, there was no such place and he was only having them on. Which made everyone break down in laughter yet again.

"You're learning!" Saul told Draco as he caught his breath again. "Just get the accent right and we could probably make you an adoptive Australian!"

Draco grinned, "Seamus put a lot of effort into me, nice to know it paid off."

* * *

Tanya could tell by the way Tegan's back straightened and she turned sharply towards Justine, who raised a hand to halt the horses that something was up. Tanya saw Justine's hand lift to her cheek and she said very quietly through the microphone on her cheek. "Someone is about a hundred meters ahead, approach with extreme caution and keep Tanya as out of sight as possible, she is meant to be our target you know." 

Tanya saw Justine grin and tuck her reigns under her left thigh, using her legs, with gentle squeezes and kicks to control the Llysanyin she rode. She lifted her bow and led the group stealthily, or as stealthily as horses of that size could move, towards her target, circled for a moment to put off the direction of their approach and put on a burst of speed, jumping a log and landing in a clearing, her arrow pointed in the face of Luna Lovegood, who held hers in a similar position at Justine.

Justine grinned and threw a quick glance around to see that Tanya and Tegan had flanked her into the clearing and were covering Ginny and Colin, both of whom were looking confusedly at Tanya, and admirably at Luna. Justine had to admit she had dome well to collect and cover Justine so fast.

"Hang on," Colin began, "Isn't that meant to be Alyson after all, and isn't she meant to be wearing her mark vest?" He gestured at his own, which was, by considerable skill from the last minute Hogwarts team, not marked, meaning they were in with a good shot.

Justine's grin grew. "Alyson is wearing our vest, Colin. What are you talking about?"

Tanya and Tegan had to smile at this, Justine was enjoying herself.

Justine focus moved back to Luna, who was relaxed, but not relenting with her mark of Justine. "Hey Gin. Good work on keeping Colin clear. How many have you marked?"

Ginny let her pride shine in her small smirk. "Three. We were the third mark on the Nhi lon team about a minute ago, we thought you were them. And I got Electra's girl, she wasn't too happy about it either."

Justine laughed. "I got the Nhi girl about fifteen minutes ago for the first shot on their team. They would have been removed from the forest by now."

She touched her right foot to Anubis' flank and he sidestepped in that direction, using his size to her advantage, Justine stepped into the rising morning sun, making Luna look up into it to see her. Tanya recognised the move and was admirable, she would never have thought of it, she would have just tried to run and hide or attack.

Luna calmly chose to mark Tanya instead. Smart move. She froze and continued to hold her bow facing Colin, but was aware of the blondes arrow pointed at her.

Justine who was now only marked by Ginny approached the girl. "We seem to have come to a stalemate of sorts. We only have half an hour left in the event and I haven't marked Electra's team, nor have I found the South African's of Grendwell. Three teams unmarked at the three quarter mark of the event isn't good enough. Thus I offer you an opportunity to deal so we may move on."

Ginny nodded and looked perplexed for a moment. "OK, Justine, I can see you're not going to tell us why you're cheating through your teeth and you don't have your rider wearing her vest, and I don't know how you're doing it because they're meant to have anti cheating charms. But this is how it's going to work. I won't call this in right now, and Luna, Colin and I won't shoot all your asses, and you will keep moving, and not mark Colin, cause if it were fair we'd mark you but we cant." She nodded with conviction.

Justine smiled and lowered her arrow, having to trust Ginny that Luna would drop hers. These mark arrows didn't piece skin, but damn they hurt if you didn't have a vest to stop it. "Deal. You're doing well Ginny, you are a great leader." Justine kicked lightly on Anubis' sides and he walked forward, and placed her heel on his left side, veering him off in that direction back into the trees. "And for the record, technically we're not cheating."

Tanya smiled and followed on Isis, waving to Ginny, who pointed to her hair with a raised eyebrow and a smirk. Tanya spoke into her mic, "She has spent far too much time with Malfoy, and she's adopted his bloody smirk."

* * *

A resonating gong echoed past Justine, the sensation feeling almost like a corporeal wave, just as the group entered the clearing where the unicorn herd was grazing, lead by a mighty stallion. Alyson must have calmed them, because rather than flee, they merely eyed the group of huntresses and took off into the tree's like ghosts, spectres of shadow melting into the foliage. Justine, Tegan and Tanya allowed them to pass before dismounting and leading their own horses over to join the pretty silver unicorn left in the clearing. 

"Alyson my sweet, I know it's a stupid question, but being our mark for the hunt, I assume you didn't get shot?" Justine drawled, referring to her brilliant plan. The group discovered that even though Alyson had been subbed with Tanya after her injury earlier in the day, she was actually still allowed to hunt … a loophole in the rules that Justine was reluctant to use, but decided it was for the best. The rule had never been used or tested because not only would it slow your team down and make them and easier mark in this event, but mostly, subbed players were from injury or accident in the main hunt, thus the huntress who couldn't compete was not able to play on.

Alyson quickly changed into her human form, the silver of her young unicorn form changing to a riding uniform. "I wasn't even seen, this herd has so much to teach, riders just went straight by without even seeing us."

She was impressed by spending some time with the group of fine unicorns, and had felt so protected spending time with the herd. She wandered over to the remounting group and claimed her horse, Isis whinnying and rubbing her nose on Alyson lovingly. Tanya merely grinned and hopped up on the saddle behind Justine as Tegan walked around the front of Loki and glared at her.

"Listen up. If you misbehave I swear, your glue. Am I understood?"

Loki looked terrified and nodded her head.

* * *

Dinner that night was to be a spectacular event. The students of Hogwarts had been invited to sit back at their house tables and were told that they had to wear full uniform. Each of the schools had gotten a letter from Dumbledore inviting them to join the meal, wearing their school uniform, with the intent of allowing Hogwarts students to ask the students of the foreign school questions and tell jokes and generally make friends. 

Ron had dragged Hermione out of the DA common room where she had been moping all day over Harry's leaving her to sit with the Kallaix students the night before at the Moonlight Ball. The two of them stood to one side of a group of friends watching the crowds. Hermione was sipping a glass of pumpkin juice. "This should be fun, hey Hermione?" Ron asked his friend, in an attempt at humouring her "Makes a nice change to the common room don't you think?"

She looked at him and smiled, "Thank you for making me come Ron … I thought I had them today Ron, with their abuse of that sub rule. I thought I had them."

Ron gestured with a hand. "I think it's diplomatic dinner of some sort," he said, "Justine invited me before…" he broke off and frowned. "I always knew this whole thing would come back and bite me in the ass, but I didn't know just how pissed off everyone would be. I was bloody fourteen and scorned."

Hermione held his hand and looked up at him. "Everything is going wrong, but we need to stick together ok? It's all those stupid Australian's fault, I understand. We just need to try and get Harry back, and make him see reason."

Ron looked down at her and smiled, "Do you want to know the really sick thing? If they would listen to reason for five minutes, this would all blow over…"

"It's highly unlikely," came a snide and dangerously low voice from behind them.

They both turned to see Harry and Draco standing three foot behind them, with a small group of Hogwarts students, among them most of the members of the DC. It was Draco of course, who had spoken, but Harry made no effort to rebuff the statement, and that hurt Ron more than anything else Harry could have said to him.

"What do you mean?" Hermione demanded.

"Well, if he had done anything else to try and drive Justine away, it would blow over, and I do mean anything, Ronald is only capable of the pitiful and weak – But instead Ron recruited help to instigate two years of hatred and bad feeling, destroyed the only love of my life and nearly killed Justine, the very girl he proclaimed to love. Anything else you did I could probably forgive you, but not that. Not when you hurt _her_ as much as you did," Draco said calmly, but full of venom, then turned and stalked out the doors towards the lake. Harry watched him go in silence, and gestured briefly when several members of the DC would have gone after him, making them stay with him.

Harry then looked at Ron and sighed deeply, "This is getting out of hand isn't it? Look Ron, I know how you felt at the time, but seeing the reactions it's caused … You're still my best friend Ron, but I will never forget what I've found out in the past week or so, although I wish I could. As long as you know that, we can get on with life and go back to how we were … more or less… I guess… If that's what you want…"

"You think _you_ can forgive _me_?" Ron's voice nearly broke, "You're the one who's been treating me like shit and siding with everyone else against me!"

"What did I do to you? _I_ made a point of staying out of it when it concerned you!"

"Look, can we all just forget it?" Hermione yelled suddenly. "I'm sick of you constantly being like this, just forgive and move on!"

The boys just looked at each other and then away, neither willing to admit that he was in a position to be wrong.

Suddenly a cheer broke out from the Hufflepuff table as the first of the guests for their table arrived. Kris and Alyson came in, each carrying a box, which they stashed under the table, before taking a seat and smiling around at the table. Alyson turned to Kris and grinned, "It's going to be fun tonight don't you think?"

Kris grinned, "Well, I'd bet you can put money on Saul taking off his clothing!"

Alyson shook her head and chuckled, shaking the hands of pretty much every boy and the table, each and every one fighing to sit near the new girl.

As the rest of the group entered the room, Alyson saw Justine smiling, but in flawless composure. Draco was walking beside her, watching her with a very intense look on his face. Suddenly, his hand darted out, and Justine shrieked and writhed as he tickled her, then turned to glare at him for a second, before composing herself and returning to her perfect self-control state.

Alyson waved jauntily at Draco, who must have met justine in the Entrance Hall, who nodded back as he seated Justine between Saul and Ax, opposite her and Kris, and made his way to the Slytherin Table.

Suddenly, Saul got up and dove across the table, grabbing Kris by the hips of his pants and wrestling him to the ground on the far side of the table. He triumphantly heard a click and pulled of Kris's belt with barely supressed joy. waving a belt that was made to look like car seatbelt in the air. On the back of the buckle was written 'not to be used as actual safety-harness', and Saul absolutely loved it. He wore it every week. And Kris had stolen it.

Justine reached into a pocket in her robes, and immediately lifted a camera that was never far away, taking a quick snap, just as Saul ripped the belt free of Kris's pants, a look of maniacal glee and triumph on his face, as he waved the belt around happily for a moment, then disappeared under the table to apply his prize, and make his ensemble complete. He was already wearing pinstripe pants and a white shirt under his robes.

"I love your shoes," A Hufflepuff girl gestured to her pretty mary jane heels,

"Aytheria's, wonderfull designer," she responded.

"Ooh! I love her shoes!" Alyson said delightedly, "I wore some the other night to the Moonlight Ball!"

Harry watched as Kris and Saul lorded over the southern end of the Hufflepuff table. Saul thrust his fist into the air and the group immediately started cheering wildly while Kris did the same, "Good evening Hufflepuff's!" Saul yelled, voice magically magnified, but still only just managing to get over the noise of the crowd, "Are you ready?" Immediately the crowds cheering changed to a thunderous, "_Yes_!"

As he watched, Harry saw a wave of sparkling magic, originating from the stage and washing over the crowd. As it washed towards his table, he automatically raised a hand, shielding himself, Hermione, Ron, Seamus and Leon, who had joined them for the show. As the magic washed over the top of his shield, he glanced at Leon, who was sitting to his left, "What was that?"

"A cheering charm I think, some sort of massed charm," Terry replied matter-of-factly, and at the opposite end of the group, Hermione turned to stare at him in surprise, then smirk slightly to herself, as Harry dropped the shield, allowing the remnants of the spell to fall over them. The smirk was lost as she smiled, suddenly feeling that everything was alright. She had them.

Ax smiled from his seat next to Harry, whom he had wandered over to say hello to, but his eyes were not his friends who were ragiling with stories of Kalliax football games, but rather focused on a pair of red-heads in the crowd. Ginny and Tanya were sitting in the middle of Daniel and Isaac, cheering themselves hoarse together. He found it rather amusing that Tanya should pick her look-a-like to hang out with, when this morning she had been frantically trying to be different to Ginny.

His eyes were drawn to the rest of the crowd as he searched for a face he knew would be in there somewhere. Kris was standing with one of the Hogwarts people, Neville, a boy who had been in Ax's dorm when he was at school, but whom he had never had much to do with.

"So, Neville, who do you think is a complete hottie at Hogwarts? It's McGonagall isn't it? You think she's beautiful don't you?" Neville let out an "Eep", and beside Ax, Harry was practically crying with laughter, which Ax judged to be a combination of cheering charms and mental image of Neville and McGonagall.

When Kris actually gave Neville a microphone, and he blushed even redder, saying, "Luna," very quietly, but since it was into the microphone, everyone heard it anyway.

Kris raised an eyebrow, "I'm off to find this Luna … back to you guys, when I find her, I'll let you know," Kris said in fake newsreader style as he disappeared into the crowd, leaving a _very_ embarrassed Neville behind him.

Draco came out and joined Harry's little group part way through the introduction, wearing his Slytherin shirt, but with two badges, a badge proclaiming, 'Kalliax Head Girl' and his Hogwarts Head Boy badge.. Upon reaching them, he took out a hat and put it on Harry's head, saying, "Justine and I were messing around in her room this afternoon and said to give you this, apparently a baseball cap on you would be cool, I say you look cute."

"Cute?" Ax asked with a raised eyebrow.

"It means 'ugly but interesting," Draco said with complete poise.

"He discovered this last summer, and now everything is 'cute' … but never in the complementary fashion," Harry said, rolling his eyes.

"Shut up cutie," Draco replied completely out of character, making everyone laugh, "So, what have I missed?"

Completely collected, Ax replied, "Neville wants to get freaky with McGonagall."

"And Luna," Harry added, watching the far side of the room because Alyson was standing on her seat, miming goal posts with Justine so Kris could re-enact a spectacluar goal he had once made.

"Nice three-some," Ax decided, while Draco blanched.

As Alyson cheered Adam on as he explained Wentworth house, Draco turned to Harry and Ax, pointedly sitting as far from Hermione and Ron as possible. "Alyson is really beautiful Ax, you're a lucky man," he turned to Ax and smirked. "But then you also have the delicious red head. Both gorgeous gals at your beck and call."

Harry snorted into his drink and tried not to laugh. "I have to admit I'm jealous as hell, Alyson's quite um…" He gestured with one elbow towards the stage blushing.

Hermione's eyes narrowed dangerously, and she elbowed Harry in his now exposed side. "God, all you boys think about is girls!"

Draco saw a small ring of sparkly power radiate around Harry's eyes as he lowered his arm slowly, with a clenched jaw, then he looked at Ax and Draco with a looked that was pure Malfoy, "Yeah, well you're going to go see them after our NEWT's in June, spend some time down under, so to speak. You mentioned something about that this morning. You can get acquainted all you want with the ladies then – be sure to leave some girls for the Australian men, we wouldn't anyone getting jealous … would we?"

Draco read Harry's face like a book, and, taking his queues straight from Harry, and reparteed, in tones of over done politeness "Dear Harry, I believe my choice in ladies has been made, and I have no eyes for anyone else … although Malfoy International has holdings in Sydney, and I'm sure that they would be willing to accommodate myself and my brother … if you'd like to come along, that is?"

Hermione's face paled and she gasped, her eyes filling with tears, "Harry, I thought we were going to France in June after the NEWT's? Now you're chasing those girls home? What about _me_!"

Draco shoved himself upright from where he had been leaning back on the wall. "Whoa, Granger, hold it! You're being irrational, cant you see that? Harry is not your property, and the way you're behaving it's not a surprise he doesn't want to spend all his time with you."

Harry looked up as well, his face cold, "For a start, Hermione, you may have noted that I was only just invited to go on this trip. Had you been maintaining your usual level of intelligence and rationality, you would have realised that, in the last three seconds since receiving this invitation, I haven't given any indication of what my decision will be … but I'll say right now, unless you snap out of this, I'll be going with Draco … I don't understand you any more."

"If you'd just spend some time with me, you would!" she said, "I've hardly seen you this week, you don't seem to want to spend any time with me at all, you've completely turned on Ron over someone you only just met – overwriting a lifetime of friendship, I might add!"

Harry immediately jumped in, not letting her get started, "Someone I've only just met? I seem to recall meeting Justine some time before this week. In fact, she was your room mate for an _entire_ year, Hermione, and you seemed to like her enough back then … in fact, when she arrived, your words were something along the lines of finally having a female ally in the Gryffindor dorms."

"That was before – we've all changed since then," Hermione replied, "She just swans back in there, setting all of our lives on edge, flirting with everyone, half of the boys in Hogwarts are chasing her, whether they've got girlfriends or not, and she's only leading them on! How can I not be worried about us?"

Harry looked down at Hermione and shook his head. How had the girl who, a week ago had been loving and kind turned, into this green – jealous monster? Almost unwillingly, he reached out and took her hand, "Um, Hermione, what's going on? I mean, I still love you, but this is ridiculous."

Draco, who had gone stony-faced at the comment of Justine being a hussy, suddenly walked forward and looked Hermione straight in the eye with malice, and Hermione shied back, believing that he was about to strike her, but he turned and stalked away, heading towards the Hufflepuff table without a word to anyone.

Harry looked down at Hermione and let go of her hand. "That was out of line you know, those girls don't deserve that sort of insult. Don't do it again ok? That's how they live, you've no right to judge them."

Hermione looked down at her empty hand and backed over to stand with Ron, who had remained silent up to the point. "You really are turning into him aren't you? Ordering me around, acting like a prick! He's even got you claiming that the Sorting Hat meant to put you in Slytherin! You're hurting me for fun…" Her eyes had a glazed look to them and she was shaking with tears till streaming down her cheeks.

Harry's face darkened and he took a deep breath before responding, "Do you even care how I feel in all this, how much all this hurts me? My girlfriend turns out to be a person I don't understand, or even know. How do I deal with that?"

Hermione's eyes widened as she realised what Harry was saying, what it all meant. She was about to loose him. "Oh god, you know everything about me… You know me better than anyone; don't do this Harry, please!"

Harry shook his head and sighed, "No I don't Hermione, and I never will." He turned and left.

Ron held Hermione back when she would have run after him, and hugged her tight. "Sweetheart, I'm going to take you back to the tower, you need to get ready for the debate's this evening, you're going to be up against Justine, and you'll have to be ready for that. I think we need to give Harry some space right now."

Julia Snapehad dropped into chat to the group, and had inspired Seamus to begin a wolf whistle competition in her honour, which had been taken out by a young lad form Nhi Lon Fohs, whose whistle could be heard clear to Hogsmeade without even the aid of a magnifing charm.

Justine teased the people talking to her from Beauxbatons and Hogwarts about their british or frenchaccents, and they teased right back cause she was Aussie, running through some Australianism like 'Mate', 'G'day' and 'That's a pearler!' Justine laughed and mocked them with "wot you dooin eh?"

"We don't say 'aboot.'" David, a Canadian by birth, said.

Draco stood near the wall with Ax, Harry, who was still somewhat downcast, and Ginevra Weasly. He watched the way this David flirted with Justine, and saw the way she accepted it, and as much as he hated it, he was jealous as hell. He now had to admit that when he had read through Justine's journal like photo album, he had been envious of the life she seemed to lead, and the number of men who seemed to be attracted to her in turn. She was his, wasn't she? They had tap danced around their relationship quite nicely, never asking question, or making an issue of the future, but Draco had to admit that he wanted it all. One day in her presence, and he was addicted, like she was a drug.

This morning when he had woken with her next to him had felt… right. He knew he didn't have competition from Kris, but what of Mark, or this David, or some other guy. He only had the assurances of Tanya that she was his, and was that enough for him?

He needed more than anything to speak to Justine. He needed answers.

Kris, who was once again wandering around the room, charmed his fake microphone and said, "You're never going to guess who I'm standing here with." He was wearing the small mischievous smile that he used when he was about to get up to something entirely naughty. "I'm standing here with Luna Lovegood," He smirked, "And Neville is just over there hiding behind Dean unsuccessfully."

The Kallaix'ians looked at each other delightedly on the stage and broke out laughing, while most of the crowd craned around to try and get a decent look.

Neville, it seemed, had gained the ability to turn the most phenomenal shade of scarlet Justine had ever seen as Kris said. "Ladies and Gentlemen, with no help at all from our young Bachelor I have successfully located the vixen of Neville's dreams."

Kris stood back and the camera panned to show Luna, the blonde girl with protrudent eyes that Justine had met during the hunt, but she now seemed to have lost her focus and was staring dreamily at Neville, then Kris, then back at Neville.

Neville emitted a sound somewhat similar to "Mmmfigump" And Kris threw his arm around his shoulders. Bringing Luna close to Neville tucked under his other arm.

"As you can see, young Neville is falling apart in the presence of this young beauty, but I, I you see am somewhat of a cupid, and I see it as my duty to get you, my faithful audience, a front seat view of the first kiss of our young Romeo, and his Juliet…

Justine watched as Neville's eyes widened to almost comical proportions, But Kris continued. "So come on guys, show us your stuff!"

Everyone began to cheer and clap to deafening proportions, screaming and wolf-whistling their heads off. And Neville, seeming to gather some sort of bravado, stepped cautiously over to Luna, took her hand and leaned close to kiss her gently. The crowd lost all sense and cheered them on.

* * *

Harry smiled. He felt free for the first time in almost a year, he hadn't realised just how _clingy_ Hermione had been, and now that they were through he had a whole different outlook on things. Sure, he wasn't happy that he and Hermione had broken up, but he was sure this was the best move for the both of them, they weren't good together. He loved her, but he just wasn't, well, _in love_ with her. That sounded corny even to his own ears, the smile slipped from his face and guilt washed over him. He should have let her down gently, he had known from the start this wasn't anything he wanted for life or anything, but now he was worried that he had lost the girl who had been his best friend for so long forever, and he may have lost that bond with Ron as well…

Shaking his head he followed the dwindling crowds up the stair case and towards the DC tower, a shower and a nap before the debates tonight would do him some good, he told himself lightly, and maybe even try to patch things further with Ron. Entering the tower he saw the red haired boy coming down the stairs.

He tentatively smiled and walked towards Ron. "We should talk, do you have a moment?"

Ron shook his head, rambling somewhat out of fear, and uncertainty Harry suspected, "Harry, Dumbledore wants you in his office, Hermione went to see him, and next thing I know people are being summoned. Justine, Saul and Kris are among the people, and according to Hermione, Kris is in a _lot_ of trouble. I just want you to know I had nothing to do with it, I didn't want to case any more trouble with the Australians and I didn't go looking for it, but Hermione, she's convinced it's all Justine's fault you broke up just now, and she ran off to Dumbledore all hell-bent on revenge."

Harry took one look at his friend and knew that Ron wasn't lying, Ron was truly sorry for his actions, of this Harry was sure, but why would Hermione blame the Australians? He looked Ron straight in the eye and asked, "Ron, no matter what you think of me, you realise I class you as my brother as much as Draco right?"

Ron looked somewhat shocked, and slightly embarrassed at the mention of Draco, the one boy he did everything in his power now to avoid. Then what Harry had said sank in and his eyes teared somewhat before he looked at the ground, mumbling, "You're Malfoy's brother Harry, I know that now, I'm sorry I caused you that trouble. I just miss you is all…"

Harry grabbed his shoulder and made him look up. "Ron, for every ounce of me that is Draco's brother, there is one for you too. Without you to balance me I'll turn into a Slytherin, and you cant leave me to that fate!" Harry let out a small laugh and embraced Ron, and then pulled back, held out his hand and said "mates?"

Ron grinned and shook it, returning the credence of their bond. "What are we going to do bout' Hermione Harry?"

"You're coming with me to Dumbledore's office, because she is going to need you… Find Ginny, she'll need a friend. Somehow, I have to get her friendship back, and back up the Australians all in one move."

Ron grimaced. "I think she's upstairs with Malfoy, working on his speech for tonight. She also offered to drop his Duelling robes to the great hall for him after so he can lead the team in getting the place ready. Ginny tells me had feels guilty because he took the morning off, and had a spectacular time, leaving Hermione alone to do all the work. He got a summons too but I wanted to tell you first."

Harry looked towards the stair and told Ron, "Wait just outside, don't go near Draco without me. As strong as his bond to Justine gets the more he seems to be calming, but it's not strong enough for a one on one yet. I'll go for Ginny, but I think we'll leave him out of this one."

* * *

"Are you sure the team would look best in black Ginevra? I mean honestly, no joke, does my ass look great, or just good in these pants?"

Ginny rolled her eyes. Since the Hunt and Moonlight Balls where Ginny had supported Draco, and since their conversation about Justine, Draco had completely come out of his shell around her. They had an understanding since Ginny had backed Draco. Seamus was right; he was a funny guy when he wanted to be, even if he did still insist on calling her 'Ginevra'. She smirked and tuned to him,

"Draco, why ask about the entire team when your only worried about yourself? Personally, I think Leon and Harry will look dashing in these, with Harry's dark hair and green eyes, they'll give him such an aura of power, and Leon, with those big hazel eyes and light brown hair, he'll look quite dramatic." Out of the corner of her eye Ginny watched Draco's reaction as she went in for the kill, "I think you'll look rather washed out though, all the paleness against the black… somewhat, greyscale?"

Draco blanched and glared at Ginny, saw her very Slytherin smirk and threw a pillow at her head, nearly knocking her from the edge of the bed. "Ginevra, seriously, you're meant to be helping wench!"

Ginny tumbled back on the pillows laughing with mirth, she had finally gotten to Draco. Who would have known in her early years all you had to do was be his friend and he was fair game? "You'll look great in black Draco, regal, dominant and you know it, and your ass looks fine." He was wearing long tailored duelling pants and a duelling top, long sleeved, high collared with buttons running down to his waist. It was form fitting and Ginny suspected he knew he looked good, but was just fishing for compliments.

Suddenly after a knock on the door, Harry entered and smiled at the pair. "Ah, Ginny, I was wondering if you'd come with me for a moment?"

As she stood to follow him, Draco called to her retreating back, "Ginevra. Please don't forget, I need the bag delivered to me at the great hall at twenty to seven tonight!"

Ginny waved a hand and closed the door behind her with her wand.

* * *

Hermione stood next to Dumbledore's desk tapping her foot. It was five in the Evening and the exhibition put on by the Kallaix students in the Great Hall was finally over. Hermione was well aware that she was running on pure adrenalin, she hadn't been sleeping from stress and a very full schedule over the last few days, and Draco hadn't helped at all today, just smirked at her and told her he was 'taking the day off.' Inwardly Hermione screamed. The amount of fuss she had endured this morning while he relaxed with the Australians in their Hunt tent. Daphne and Pansy had lodged an official complaint against their being dismissed, which had lead to all sorts of worries, then their had been the press conference with the Daily prophet who had just wanted a points update for their daily issue.

Inwardly this made her calm somewhat. Hogwarts was winning now, a somewhat comfortable six hundred and fourteen point five to five hundred and seventy nine, their closest competitors. Frigging Kallaix, and Justine had won the Hunt this morning, this would affect their lead. Damnit! Was their anything that this girl wouldn't ruin? Hermione was supposed to enjoy being Head Girl, but since she had arrived Hermione had lost everything, even, she secretly suspected but didn't dare admit, her sanity. She shook her head.

Dumbledore was watching the play of emotions across Hermione face and didn't like what he was seeing. He now feared that in his quest to unite the Magai's, fullfill the old Prophesy, he had done the one thing he had never wanted to do. He had isolated and broken Hermione, his Head Girl and the one person he was relying on to give Harry support. A long conversation with the Delightful Jean Wadsworth this morning had left him with a whole new respect for the woman. She had stood by her students, but recognised that Justine, though she was a volitile personality,was something greater than she realised, and both agreed it would soon be time to link her fate to both Draco and Harry's. Then she had spilled and interesting revelation. The rumours Dumbledore had heard about Ax from the first night of the Hunt were true, when he had attacked Leon Necrose he had indeed summoned upon Sword Magai strength. This was an interesting revelation indeed.

Dumbledore sighed and reached one arm slowly to stroke across Fawkes' feathered head. The destiny of the light side depended on Harry taking this well, but he feared that his mistakes in the past would alter his judgement of today's revelations. Thus he had signed the summons forms for a specific few and sat next to where Hermione paced to wait.

First to enter was Harry, with Ginny and Ronald Weasly. Dumbledore saw them exchange a look and was certain they had come in here with some sort of plan, he could read it in Ron's face, though he was glad the fuss Ron had caused seemed to be dying down.

Ronald and Harry moved together to sit on a sofa on the far side of the room, before Ron spoke quite clearly, shocking Hermione, "Sir, I was unable to find Malfoy, perhaps he was with Justine and will arrive shortly."

The group fell into silence once more.

When next the stone griffin moved it revealed Snape to be leading Justine, Kris, Saul and Alyson, all of whom seemed to be following his lead, so when he moved to sit behind one long bench seat they all sat on it, except Kris, who as Kallaix Head Boy felt he had the right to know what they had done wrong, or right. Thought he suspected by the look on Harry's face, and Hermione's glare, it was wrong.

"Headmaster, I assume that by summoning us and requiring we bring our host teacher we are in some sort of trouble?"

Dumbledore pressed his fingertips together, making a conical and watching Kris intently, "We must wait for one more person, then we will discuss today's events Mr Crompton," And as if by cue, McGonnagal entered the room.

"Albus, I managed to find all the student requested but one, Draco is not in the so called DC tower room, nor the Slytherin Common room…" She looked perplexed, as though students being out of their place in these dark days tormented her.

Dumbledore however stood with a ghost of a smile and said, "My dear Minerva that would be because he is in the room of requirement practising putting humour into his speech with Seamus Finnegan."

At his Minerva nodded and sat next to Harry and Ronald.

Kris again cleared his throat pointedly and Albus could almost see Kris, indeed all the Kallaix students, fall into 'Student Trial' mode, when they were clear, to the point and very concise. "Headmaster and Teachers, I must again ask on behalf of my school, what reason do you have for summoning us to your office today. As much as I _love_ our time spent here, it is becoming ridiculous, if we are so against your behavioural codes, why not just _send us home_?"

Hermione snapped. There was no other way to put it, she stalked across the room in a fit of temper and slapped Kris clean across the face. "YOUR IMMORAL! You had to do something _against the law_ to even make people enjoy your little display today! Mass cheering charms have been outlawed since the 1700's in Britain, and you're under our jurisdiction!"

She raised her hand again but before she could swing down, Justine stood angrily and said in a clear but deathly quiet tone, which strongly reminded Albus of Severus, "Physical abuse is also punishable by law, even in muggle terms, but the aggressor always classed as the first to strike, so lay your hands on him again and you will deal with me" Hermione cried out in anguish and Justine squeezed hard on her fingers and pulled back, running over to stand next to Dumbledore, seeming to fall back on his strength, sobbing somewhat and glaring at Harry.

Dumbledore placed one hand on her shoulder and Ginny and Ron came to help her to a free chair, McGonnagal falling in beside Harry, somewhat knowing something was coming and offering her support silently. "Hermione, you and I both know that the law states that massed cheering charms are punishable by fine and an act of community service, but what you must take into account is the laughter. A standard cheering charm lasts an hour and a half. Our early dinner lasted from three to five, that's two. Mr. Crompton, Mr. Thorpe-Townsend, Miss Deveréaux and Miss Snape were getting some of the loudest cheering and laughter towards the end of their show. In these dark times we often don't get to have the fun nor freedom that the students of Hogwarts deserve, being in the epicenter of Voldemort's territories."

The Australians and indeed a few of the British in the room looked uncomfortable at the usage of the Dark Lords name, especially Alyson who could sense the evil dripping off the word. Justine looked covertly for Severus's hand, which was resting on her shoulder

"When I saw the joy on the faces of my students today, I was over whelmed with thanks for Mr. Crompton, for giving Hogwarts the joy it deserved, and so I say his community service is paid. Although I will have to enforce the fine, we will do so in a way that leads not unto the act being recorded, if you could find it to finance another maternity room at St. Mungo's, I know we are in need of it."

Kris nodded and stood. "Headmaster, and Hermione. I didn't know that the spell was outlawed; it just seemed like a good idea at the time. I will do as you have suggested, and I am sorry I have cause Hermione such grief. Please accept my apology."

Dumbledore nodded, his smile returning as he said kindly, "That was said well Kristopher. Thank you. If you like, I will expect you tomorrow morning at nine am for a floo conference with both your father and St. Mungo's."

"Headmaster!" Hermione screeched, "_I_ certainly do not accept this abomination of a punishment. He is to do 100 hours of community service for this criminal act against our school, and the fine is several _hundred_ galleons, I know, I looked it up!"

Kris rolled his eyes at her. "You dimwit, how much do you think a state of the art maternity suite is going to cost?"

Hermione fumed. "The only reason any one enjoyed the meal was because you hit them with cheering charms it was dull and… and the Gryffindor girls and I _hated it_!" She looked to Ginny for support, but was met by an uncertain look, Ginny it seemed, was not ready to lie to make Hermione feel better and she had had a great time.

Kris laughed condescendingly, "It would seem the Gryffindor girls were just fine with it, not that we were even at their table" he mocked her, "Or maybe your upset because you enjoyed watching me a little too much?"

Hermione blanched and poked a finger hard into his chest. "Not one, I repeat, not one of the girls today would ever want you without the charms, you pompous smarmy asshole!" And Justine stood. Kris would not take this well.

But before she could do anything, Kris turned, and swept Ginny up in his arms, leant her back and kissed her on the lips, making a slow, sensual show of it, before pulling back to observe the girl in his arms. "Tell her she's lying Ginny, when I'm in charge I can have any girl I want."

Ginny looked dazed, and Justine saw her expression turn form one of soft desire and caring to fear and pain. Damn Kris, he had used Ginny to prove a point and Ginny knew it. Her eyes filled with tears and she fought against Kris, beating his chest with her fists and crying out. Kris set her on her feet and let go, the anger bleeding from him as he watched her shocked. The room seemed frozen. It had all happened so fast, not even the teachers knew what to make of it. Ron's face however seemed to be changing. His eyes were bleeding of color, his fist curling into fist's that also seemed to radiate with a white-hot energy. He walked towards Kris and without a second thought, punched him clear in the face, catching his cheekbone. Kris stepped back, one hand flying to inspect the damage of his cheek, and as Ginny fled the room, he straightened and said, "Do you know what you're asking for Weasly?"

Ron's eyes thinned to slits. "Yes." Was his simple response and both boys lunged at each other.

Justine saw Severus and Albus move as if to break up the fight, and for reasons unknown to her, felt the need to stop them, so she drew up a shield of Magai energy to encapsulate the boys, with her inside.

Across the room, Alyson felt something pull from just below her breastbone, and knew that her heart desired her to protect… Ron? She shrugged and had to answer the insatiable need of herself and when she felt the barrier grow to protect the boys he hastily stepped in. She drew an earring from her ear and slashed one fingertip, and flicked a drop of her blood at the Barrier, causing it to grow in intensity and power; no one could kill it now, only Justine. Ron was protected.

Dumbledore watched in shock and the fight ensued, with himself, Harry, Severus, Saul, and Minerva, trapped outside. Severus surged forward and in his first words since entering said to Justine though the shield, "Justine, if you feel the need to stop us from interfering, for Merlin's sake could you please break the fight up?"

Justine seemed to come out of a trance. Kris had Ron pinned and was screaming obscenities as he pummeled him, but Ron seemed to be running on a power not his own, and he was punching back, kicking and yelling too. Finally Justine ran over and shoved Kris in the shoulders hard, causing him to topple off the other boy. Ron jumped to his feet at the same time and as both boys ran for each other, Justine cast a polar charm on the boys, making them like magnets with opposite polar force who could run at each other all they wanted, but they couldn't get close.

"Kris, Ron, calm down ok. I know Kris had been a little insensitive Ron, and I know you think Ron has it coming to him Kris, but please, both… stop… it…" The force of both boys struggling, and the force field began to take its toll, and Ron managed to get real close to Kris and swing. Unfortunately he missed and caught Justine in the lip, which immediately began to bleed down the front of the green netting top she was still wearing. Her hands broke out in sparks and glowing.

The polar charm dissipated, but both boys stared in shock. "Bunny?" Kris asked, running to her side as she held her lip, tears streaming down her face. She weakly wrapped one arm around his waist, which he took as a good sign, her other hand trying to stop the flow of blood, the sparking wasn't helping.

Ron stood frozen. He had hit a girl. Out of anger he had hit a girl he cared about. Holy Shit, his mother was going to kill him. Justine was going to kill him. Holy Shit. Malfoy. He stumbled over to Justine and placed a hand on her shoulder, pleading that she was ok. The guilt tore him up inside as he got her blood across his hand. Alyson instead pushed her way between the boys, shoving them out of the way and lifted her chin, placing her bleeding fingertip on Justine's cut.

"I know it's gross, but this should stop the bleeding and swelling." She said to her best friend.

Justine just nodded, took a deep breath and pulled down the shield. "No one move" she said quietly, "This comes under Kallaix Jurisdiction. Kris, your accused of the same this we charged Ax with the other night, deliberately harming another student. I pass on to you the same punishment you gave him. Thus a warning will be noted in your school record, you will apologize to Ginevra Weasly then leave her alone. She may approach you, not the other way round and you may not address her in informal conversation. Am I clear?"

Kris nodded and pulled out a monogrammed hanky to dab Justine's chin, using his wand to make it ice cold so he cold relieve some of her pain. "I understand"

She turned her eyes on Ronald. "At Kallaix Academy I would have the power to suspend you for this, with some nasty side punishments for good measure. But, in all honesty, I wouldn't. What transpired today came about due to pent up emotions form actions dating back years. I want to say to you now, once and for all. I understand why you did what you did. We have always clicked, and made terrific friends. This is why it was so vicious when we were not. It's over Ron. I hold nothing against you anymore. Its in the past." She turned to Kris who nodded. "Kallaix will no longer hold a grudge on your name, and I would appreciate a 'hello' in the corridors now and then… well, until I leave tomorrow." She somehow now had managed to stop crying.

Both boys turned and shook hands, apologizing quietly to one another.

Dumbledore stood rooted to the spot. These student trials were spectacular indeed. The conflict between Justine and Ronald was resolved, as was this recent kafuffle. He cleared his throat, and Justine's eyes shot up. "Headmaster, I will return in a moment, but I just need to go see Ginny and make sure she is ok."

He nodded and Justine fled the room, Severus and Minerva's eyes a shocked mirror of his own reaction. But all was not well when Hermione, who until now had remained quiet said loudly, "He's going to get away with it _again_? Damnit Harry, Professor, DO SOMETHING! Kallaix can't get away with this… this attack on the Weasley's!"

This caused the most shocking event of all. It seemed Alyson's empathic power saw, and in an uncharacteristic move, as she usually didn't like confrontation because she embraced her Unicorn side, she stood and pushed it back, truly becoming the heiress to Deveréaux Lawyers. She walked clear in front of Hermione and said quietly. "You know what I am Hermione, thus you know my words to be true. Your accusations are rude, your behavior disgusting and you're now glaring with a mind full of revenge and anger at your own leaders. Have you lost your mind? A war is coming, we all know it, and you are begrudging Harry Potter, the boy many see as our last hope. He deserves your respect, no matter the decisions had made today, because I can fell friendship pouring out of the both of you for each other. If you have anger towards the Australians, let it not be for personal vendetta's, rather for the welfare of your school. Think hard before you speak in this meeting again, and know that I will know if you're not true to you own heart." Alyson reached out one hand towards Hermione and traced a hand down her cheek, at which Hermione shied away.

Dumbledore cleared his throat, watching the clock; He had forty-five minutes till the next event. "Ladies and Gentlemen, I believe we must all sit and wait for the return of Miss Snape. It is time to share some truths with you, some things you want to hear, some things, you may not.

* * *

Ginny had run to the lake, and was now staring terrified as The McEwan Dragon tried to comfort her newest 'Flame-Haired child'. Justine calmly walked to where Ginny was on the shore and sat straight down next to her on the bank.

"Ginny, are you ok?" Justine said quietly. Ginny had lowered her head to her knees, and wrapped her arms around her drawn up legs. She was a figure of dejection.

'_Child! Tell me why you are blood soaked? What has happened to you' _McEwan was now fretting, Justine could hear it. _'Kristopher told me that if I let things lie for the last few days and let him protect you all would be well, now you are injured?' _Her anger was rising, So Justine turned and said to her "McEwie, I love you, but you are worrying unnecessarily, the injury was sustained during an event, by my own foolishness. Please though, could I have a moment with Ginny, we need to talk."

McEwan dropped her great head and nudged Justine's side before diving of content, sending waves rushing up the bank, wetting both Ginny's and Justine's feet and lower legs. Justine grimaced playfully and turned to Ginny to make a clever quip when she saw the girl was looking at her in horror.

"What really happened?" She whispered.

"Justine looked across the water thinking then back at Ginny. "It would seem that both boys thought you were worth causing a fuss over, and they had a bit of a fight, and then I accidentally got punched. No biggie"

Ginny's eyes widened, but at that exact moment a funny jingle could be heard, and Justine reached into her back pocket and retrieved a small metallic green flat box like thing, which she proceeded to open like a book and hold to one ear. "Hello?" She paused and a smile played across her bloody and battered lips. "…No Mark, I am quite fine, the charm probably heated cause I got… uh punched…" She laughed a little as a loud curse could be heard from the box thing, "…I have to go but I love you ok? Kiss kiss… mmm hmmm… Yup… I'm fine I promise… Yes I'll call you… Your coming? That's so cool. See you tonight then ok? Ciao…" and she closed the box thing and put it in her pocket again.

Ginny was staring in wonder. She had heard of these portable floo things, called 'mobilly phones' originally a muggle invention. "Was that? Mark Grey?" She asked in wonder. "Are you really dating him?"

Justine laughed, "If only you knew, but were here to talk about you now remember."

Ginny remembered and was instantly miserable again. Justine placed a hand on top of hers and grimaced, "He's really hurt you hasn't he?" At Ginny's sob she continued, "Ginny, I know it's hard but you have to try and not take this personally. Kris is from Australia, where guys are idiotic. He didn't realise he would hurt you. The painful thing here though is he should have known better, because he knows you like him."

Ginny's eyes flew up as though she would deny it, but upon seeing Justine's conviction she moaned, burying her hands in her red tresses, she sobbed out, "Oh Merlin! How many people know? This is even worse!"

Justine moved to crouch in front of Ginny. "Sweetheart, you need to act like this never happened ok? It's a bitch, but if you want his attention you need to make him feel bad. I wouldn't tell just anyone this, in fact I would be telling you to run, screaming, frantically in the other direction, as fast as you can. But I've seen the way he looks at you. Its not appraising, its not calculating, its appreciation. He admires your spunk, and we both know you have it, its just kind of weighed down by the embarrassment right now. So get off your ass and come back with me and make him feel like the jerk he is. Your too strong for this Gin."

Ginny was slightly shocked. Justine was right. She was acting like an idiot. She stood and brushed her robes down. "Is Ronald or Kris hurt badly, I know Medi-Aid."

Justine smiled and nodded. "That's better. Kris knows how to do Medi-Aid spells too. Ron might be worse for wear though. Lets move"

Ginny and Justine embraced and Justine was shocked when Ginny was suddenly pulled back and Draco stepped between Ginny and Justine, erecting a shield and pulling up her chin with angry, worried eyes. He lifted his hand and Justine felt a pull of Magai magic so similar to her own as he ran a finger tip across her bottom lip slowly, leaving her skin perfect once more, then he cleansed her of all blood. "What the hell did Ginevra do to you? I'll make her pay," he growled gutturally, glaring at the red head trying to get into Justine

From outside Ginny could be heard yelling her head off and Justine had to smile, when she had said 'find your spunk' this was what she needed, but Draco was pissed.

"Draco I'm fine, I wasn't fighting with Ginny, but we are in the middle of something…"

Draco grabbed her by the upper arms gently when she would have left, narrowing his eyes at her. "That wound had been treated with unicorn blood, Alyson is involved. Why is she involved? Justine, don't shut me out. I want to protect you," His eyes were so intense Justine was almost lost in them, a shudder ran through her as one of his hands on her upper arm ran down her arm, moving to rest on the side of her waist. "And why are your legs wet? Merlin! I just want to know what's going on" The shield pulsed and Justine nodded.

"Hermione told on Kris to Dumbledore for using cheering charms. We've been in Dumbledore's office. Then Kris kissed Ginny, and Ron got pissed off and punched him, and Kris retaliated and I got hit." She said in a rush.

Draco's hands sparked, identically to Justine's and his eyes darkened, the iris's loosing colour until they were black. "Kris hit you? Then Kris will suffer," Draco said in a voice so dark that Justine flinched. He leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead, wrapping his arms around her, "I swear, no one will ever hurt you again Justine," and the shield dropped, he released her slowly and Draco stalked off, in the direction of Kris.

Justine blinked rapidly, Draco was going to make Kris suffer… but it wasn't Kris? Then she realised how what she had said had been interpreted. Damn, she had been so lost in his eyes she hadn't even given him details. She looked At Ginny who seemed to have come to the same conclusion. Ginny was terrified. Both girls tore through the grounds and encountered Draco at the front steps, Justine swung in front of him and faced him head on, reaching up to pull his head down and look him in the eye.

"Draco! It wasn't Kris who hit me, don't hurt him, he was trying to defend himself from Ronald…"

Justine watched in horror as the black in his eyes spread to encompass the white, "Ronald? He was the one who hit you?"

Justine stuttered, "Well yes, but he…"

The air around them pulsed outwards from Draco, throwing everyone but Justine from the vicinity; Justine was merely moved backwards and surrounded by a shield.

Draco's entire body was surrounded by an aura of dark magic, but where hers sparked a purple colour, his was sparking electrical white. His eyes were black, colourless and emitting small sparks of their own. They narrowed, looking towards Dumbledore's office. "Then Weasly will die." The air crackled and a thunderstorm rolled across the skies. Lightning striking the ground around Draco, scattering students who took refuge wherever they could, and when it cleared he was gone. Justine's eyes widened and she took off at a flat run for Dumbledore's office, parting the crowds with one hand as she went, Ginny at her heels.

The rain began to fall as foreboding thunder rumbled overhead.

* * *

buh Buh BUUUHHHHHH! This is Princess signing in!- lol. new chappie hot off the press for y'all - No one spotted the Fritz in the last few chapters... there was a prize for spotting him you know! Did anyone spot this chapters cameo? (coughAytheriacough)

Thankyou's:

**The Crazy One** - Thankies good lady! Your awesome Anne and you know it!

**Mali-Caren** - Your Welcome! Yeah, sorry we were gone for so long, but the chapters are uber long and we were going through the exam section of the Australian school year XD thus internet and time together time became aprecious resource. We're back on track now. Lol.

**Evil Percussionist** - Yeah, im all updating again like :D Thanks for following and reviewing love. VIVA LA CANADA!

**Blade Knight** - Your so Awesome man. :D no... really...

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**Padfoot's Godchild** - Whoa. Your review was spectacular! I dont much like Ron and Hermione, which Wolfmoon constantly laughs about. Im like, "lets kill Hermione! She's annoying!" Harry and hermione are now officially over. YAY! And the prophesy from the squib (strokes her chin sagely) welllllll... thats for me to know... and you to read next chapter! thankyou for reviewing

**Altari** - (tackles in hugs) Your so damn awesome - lets chat again on Yahoo soon! Thankies for revieing (points to top of page) I dedicated to you O.O Did you seeeeeeeee?

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